The More Things Change
by The Doormaster
Summary: I doesn't matter how much time passes or how many things change, somethings are simple ingrained into the world. Conflict in every era is a simple truth, but maybe the key to ending this eras conflict lies in a relics from a past one. T for violence, language and/or suggestive themes.
1. Chapter 1

**So I've been tossing this idea around in my head for quite a while an finally decided to put it to paper, well virtual paper. Let's begin shall we.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY, Bloodborne, Dark Souls, Sekiro or any of their characters. No profit of any kind is made from this story, it is written for entertainment purposes only. All credit goes to the rightful owners.**

_"Before there was time, before there was light, there were dragons and fog. Then from nothing came fire."_

He stood looking down upon the one who'd caused all of this, he a mere undead looked down upon one who'd fancied himself a god. Gywn, Lord of Cinder laid breathing heavily as blood pooled around him soaking the ash of the kiln. The undead clad in faraam armor wielding a simple shield and long sword shook his head, he'd hated this being for an unknowable amount of time, but now looking down on him as he desperately reached for his sword the only thing the undead felt was pity. Raising his blade he swiftly brought it down and pierced the fallen 'god' through his very mortal heart.

As the deity gasped the undead pushed the blade further and further into him, he continued pushing until the hilt was touching his chest. He could feel the last beat reverberate through the metal of the blade until it finally came to a stop. He wasn't sure how long he sat there with his blade in the deity's chest, long after the familiar rush of souls entered him.

_"And with fire came disparity. Light and dark, life and death. The age of fire burned bright and long, but like any fire."_

He finally stood and pulled his blade from the the 'gods' chest and turned his gaze towards the bonfire at the center of the room, slowly he moved over towards it. Looking at the dim glow of what could barely be called embers he felt rage bubble up within him.

_"It fades."_

This was why so many had to suffer, that old man was so terrified of the dark, of man, that he was willing to allow the world to rot and die. The chosen undead turned away from the embers and began walking towards the entrance of the kiln. He was done, he slew the false god and had cast his work into the dust, whatever happened next was no longer his concern.

"After everything you'd let it fade?" He heard a familiar voice, Solaire stood at the entrance to the kiln. "You'd allow the world to fall to an age of darkness?"

The chosen undead looked at the man he'd come to see as his closest ally, even if they disagreed on much he knew the man had a good heart. Nodding he continued to walk passing the warrior of sunlight by.

"Then what was the point of all of this?!" He spun around and demanded from the silent warrior. "If you have no intention of rekindling the flame then why do this?! Why did you fight so hard to simply walk away now?!"

The chosen undead stopped half way down the stairs to the kiln, taking a deep breath he turned to face his friend. Raising his hand he pointed at the knight and then gestured to the kiln, the message was clear. 'If you care so much, I won't stop you. Do it yourself.' He said this with the simple gesture. With that done he turned and continued walking.

He could feel the lighting of the kiln as he went, he could only shake his head. He was tired and simply didn't care anymore.

It took a lot of walking but he finally managed to make out of the Anor Londo. He was leaving and hopefully would never return to this cursed city. He'd find somewhere dark and quiet and would rest, forever. Looking down at the blade at his hip, the ordinary looking sword that was anything but with a deep frown. "Never again."

**Untold Centuries Later**

"Don't ever mess with my team, my friends, ever again. Got it?" Jaune didn't wait for an answer as he turned to walk away. Cardin remained unmoving as the blonde left him alone in the clearing.

Dropping to the ground he let out an exhausted sigh, looking around the clearing he noted the torn up dirt and impact craters from where ursa had been stomping around. What stood out to him the most however was the absence of his own team, they'd taken off the moment the ursa had shown up, they abandoned him to his fate at the claws of the beast without a seconds hesitation.

He remained sitting for a few more minutes before he picked himself up and walked over to where his mace had been knocked away to. Picking it up he couldn't help but feel a growing rage inside himself, he wasn't sure why he was so angry or who it was directed at, but in a random act of anger he slammed the mace into the side of a nearby tree sending it falling to the ground.

What he hadn't expected however was for the ground beneath him to crumble and collapse in on itself dropping him down into a deep chasm. Landing with a hard thump on rock earned pained groans from the armored leader only for everything to become dark moments later.

**Hours Later**

Cardin's eyes cracked open as his head began throbbing, reaching up he touched it only to wince in pain. It was only when he went to check his hand for blood that he realized it was pitch black, looking up he couldn't see any sunlight shining through any cracks anywhere. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out his scroll which was miraculously undamaged and opened it up, his eyes widened significantly when he saw that it was well past midnight.

He'd been out for at least nine hours. Instantly he attempted to call his team only for the device to say he had no signal. "Dammit." He hissed before activating the flash light on his scroll, it definitely wasn't the brightest in the world but it at least allowed him to see a few feet around him. To his surprise he wasn't in a cave, at least not from what he could tell. It looked closer to some sort of brick hallway than a cavern. Looking up with the scroll he saw the large hole he must've fallen through now blocked by large rock that likely fell after him.

Finally standing to his feet he went to take a step but felt his foot hit something, looking to it a small smile came to his face. Grabbing his mace he rested it on his shoulder, having his weapon at least gave him some small amount of comfort. Deciding upon a random direction Cardin began walking, he was careful with his steps after nearly tripping several times on roots that had grown through the walls or stones that had fallen from the ceiling or walls.

He walked for over an hour without seemingly making any progress, the hallway just kept going. A ding from his scroll alerted him to it's low battery, he grimaced at the thought of walking through here without it's light. He wasn't afraid of the dark, but the thought of twisting his ankle or possibly missing a turn somewhere was not appealing in the least to the teen. He was at three percent battery when the never ending hallway did indeed came to an end, a large wooden door with metal bars bolted to it took up the entire wall before him. Inscribed into the center of the door was a message, unfortunately it was written in an ancient script Cardin didn't even recognize let alone understand.

Grabbing the door handle he pulled, at first it didn't budge but after he began pulling with all his might it slowly began to open. Dust was kicked up at it ground against the stone floor but within a minute of pulling as hard as he could, which was far harder than the average human could, he managed to open it enough to slip through. On the other side of the door were two things, both filled the boy with nothing but despair.

The first thing he noticed was the fact that the room was simply a large twenty foot by twenty foot stone room with no other doors or windows. No furniture or boxes, nothing except what sat in the corner. Propped up in the corner was a body, at least Cardin thought it was a body, it was covered completely in armor with blue leather beneath the armor. A full faced metal helm adorned his head and white fur of some kind sat on his shoulders. Lying on the ground next to him was a metal shield and a sheathed sword. All in all the knight looked ancient, the fact that a root had grown through the wall and over his shoulder just went to show how long he'd been there.

Cardin frowned deeply, he was tired, in serious pain from the wound on his head, and now very slightly guilty that he'd probably just desecrated this old warriors resting place. The idea of turning around and walking for gods only knew how long without a light to see was enough to bring the teen to his knees. "DAMMIT!" He shouted punching the floor, his voice echoed around the room and likely down the hallway. Falling backward Cardin let his back hit the wall, sitting still he tried to ignore the growling of his stomach and the dryness of his mouth. He hadn't eaten or drank anything since lunch, closing his eyes he decided to rest in the room for a while, turning off his light to save what little battery he had left he closed his eyes. "This sucks." He said quietly to himself.

When he turned his scroll off he'd seen the time, it had been nearly two hours since he woke up. "Two hours and I already can't stand this place, I can't imagine how you must feel." He said in the direction of the armored body, a laugh escaped his throat at the fact that he was talking to a corpse. "Maybe this is karma you know, I admit I'm a bit of a jackass. I pick on people, sometimes I take my jokes to far, and yeah I don't like faunus, but is that enough to condemn a guy to death in an empty room who knows how far underground?" He asked the corpse. "I wonder what you did to end up here."

After a minute without any response Cardin shook his head. "I'm loosing my fuckin mind." He sat in silence for another few minutes deciding it was time to get up and leave. As he did his mind told him to pay some sort of respects to the corpse he'd disturbed with his presence. Walking over to it he dropped to one knee and closed his eyes before silently giving a prayer his grandmother had once taught him to respect the fallen. As he was about to stand he looked at the sword laying next to the shield on the ground. He didn't know why, but something inside him drew him to the blade, reaching for it he grabbed it's sheath and lifted it. To his surprise it was far heavier than he'd expected, so much so that he needed both hands to lift it, if he were to guess he'd say it must've weighed at least eighty pounds which for a one handed long sword of it's size was absolutely ridiculous. Out of curiosity he grabbed it's handle and was about to draw it when a hand grabbed his arm.

He didn't scream, he didn't swing at it with his mace. His heart simply skipped a beat and his blood felt as though it had turned to ice, turning his head slowly to the corpse, his free hand grabbing his scroll he slowly turned on it's light. His eyes met those between the slits in the helm, the corpse gave a slow shake of it's head. As it did so Cardin's world once more went black.

**Beacon**

Ozpin sighed heavily as he looked over the report on his desk, Cardin Winchester had still not been found. Search teams had scoured the stretch of forest where he'd last been seen, but aside from carnage that mostly matched what Jaune Arc had described after their run in with an ursa, they hadn't found anything. As was procedure with most operations involving citizens and standard law enforcement beyond the walls of the city, the search had to be called off till morning. Oddly enough team JNPR's leader had been one of the few who had to be almost forcibly brought back out of the field.

The blonde seemed to be taking some sort of responsibility for the teens disappearance seeing as he was the last person to have any contact with the boy. Glynda had also taken personal responsibility for his disappearance, it had been her job to keep the children safe and she'd managed to lose one. It had been harder to bring her back than Mr. Arc. The Winchester's, a rather influential family in Vale were also breathing down his neck to find the young man.

Ozpin was old, older then any one else on Remnant, minus one of course. He'd watched everyone he'd ever known die, whether it be through war, sickness, or simply old age. He'd out lived them all, still it never got any easier to lose one of his students.

He watched as the sun began peaking up over the horizon, it was morning and the search would continue soon. For what ever it was worth, especially knowing what he did, he prayed for the boys safe return.

**With Cardin**

The first thing he felt as his eyes began to crack open once again was pain from his head, then he noticed he was moving. He felt something pushing on his stomach and he was moving up and down slowly. It took several second to realize that he was being carried over someone's shoulder like a sack, but who and where was he? He tried to remembered walking down a long hallway and finding a room, inside the room he found a corpse in armor. That was when it hit him, he'd fainted when the corpse had moved.

In an instant his eyes shot open fully to see the dim glow of a torch near him, rolling of the persons shoulder Cardin reached for his weapon only to find it missing. Raising his fists instead he looked at the person only a few feet away, it was the man in armor holding a torch, at his waist was tied Cardin's mace next to his sword. On his back sat his shield.

The armored man simply stared at Cardin for several seconds without moving, following the teens gaze to his waist he reached down and grabbed Cardin's mace quickly removing the cord holding it there. Cardin held his stance as the armored man raised his mace and tossed it to him, surprised by this Cardin still managed to catch his weapon. Without a word the armored man gestured for him to follow before he continued walking.

Cardin waited for several more seconds still expecting an attack, but after the man had walked a good distance from him he'd decided that the man had no intention of fighting, at least for now. Walking quickly to catch up Cardin soon fell into step several feet behind the knight. The two walked in silence for several minutes before Cardin spoke up. "What is this place?" He asked, he received no answer. "Why are you down here?" He asked and again didn't get an answer. "Where are we going?" This time he asked without expecting a reply and wasn't surprised by the silence, at least silence from the knight.

For the first time since waking up he could hear something, it was barely audible and distant but he recognized it. "Running water." He whispered. It was coming from the direction they were walking and as they continued walking it got louder and louder until it was a roar. They finally arrived at a pair of stone door that the knight began to push open with visible effort, water began splashing them as it opened, it took several seconds for Cardin to realize that the door was behind a waterfall. Once the door was open the knight gestured to it. "Is that the exit?" Cardin asked the obvious, the first reply he'd received since waking came in the form of a light nod. Without further communication the knight turned around and began walking back in the direction they'd come from.

Cardin wanted to ask the man several questions but knew he wouldn't receive any answers. He stayed there for several minutes just watching the man walking away until his torch was just a flicker in the dark far in the distance. Turning to the water Cardin shrugged and backed up a bit before taking a running start and jumping through it. In a rare moment of luck he found that the fall was only about ten feet into a small pond that lead into a creek. Dragging himself onto the shore Cardin looked up at the sky, judging by the sun he was able to tell it was still morning, likely around seven based off of the height of the sun.

Leaning down to the clear water of the pond he scooped some of it into his hands and drank his fill before finally deciding to begin the long walk towards Vale. He knew he was west of Vale and he knew based off the rising sun which way to go, with a groan he began walking. Freezing in his track he took on an annoyed look. "I forgot to thank that guy." He said to himself looking to where he knew the hidden doorway was behind the waterfall, it was completely unnoticeable. After a few more seconds he sighed and continued walking.

**Hours Later**

Cardin sat quietly in the bullhead trying to resist the rage filled glare Glynda was sending his way. To both his luck and misfortune it had only taken about two hours before he ran into a search group that had been out looking for him, they'd been overjoyed to find him alive and he was happy he wouldn't have to walk all the way back to Vale. He'd been in the process of getting first aid for the wound to his head when Glynda had stormed into the tiny command center for the search parties and launched into a rant for nearly twenty minutes over the trouble his getting lost had caused. So far nobody had actually taken a minute to ask him what had happened or given him a chance to explain.

He felt the ship land and soon the doors opened up, he was really looking forward to collapsing in his bed. "Mr. Winchester, the headmaster has requested your presence the moment we returned." Glynda told him in a stern voice.

Another groan escaped his lips as he began following the woman to the large tower overlooking the school. It didn't take long before the pair were in the elevator raising up and the doors opened to the headmasters office. Entering the older man gesture to a chair across the desk from him, Glynda took her position standing next to his desk once again glaring at the boy.

"Mr. Winchester, it's good to see you alive and well. The medics reported your only injuries were a mild concussion and simple scrapes and bruised along the rest of your body. While this is all good to hear, I was hoping you could explain where you've been and why you disappeared." The headmaster explained to the teen calmly.

Nodding Cardin cleared his throat. "I fell sir."

"You fell?" He repeated.

"Yes sir, in anger I struck a tree with my mace and it fell over. The ground beneath me then collapsed in on itself and I fell down into the opening and into an underground tunnel. I must've hit my head on the way down because it was past midnight when I woke up. After waking up I saw the the opening above me had closed up, I tried to call for help but my scroll had no signal." As he explained all of this the headmaster simply listened and nodded along.

"So you were trapped in this tunnel, how did you get out?" The headmaster asked.

"Well using my scrolls light I picked a direction and began walking, when I reached the end a while later I found a large wooden door." Cardin explained with a bit more enthusiasm as his mind went to the knight who'd helped him, then he stopped. If he told them a knight in full armor came to life in a cave and carried him out they'd think he was crazy.

"And what was on the other side of the door?" Ozpin asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Nothing." Cardin spoke without really thinking.

"Nothing?"

"Uh, yeah. It was just a dead end, it turned out I went the wrong way." He said scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "I was really tired so sat down for a while before turning around. It took a few hours but I managed to reach the other end which was an exit. After than I began walking in the direction of Vale and that's when the search team found me."

"I see. Well it's definitely not unheard of for seismic activity, in this case caused by the ursa and that tree falling, to open up fissures into long abandoned tunnels of mine shafts. If this is indeed what happened and I see no reason to doubt you, then it would appear this entire fiasco was just one big accident. As far as I can see there really isn't anything to be done, you may return to your room and get some rest. You will also be given the next two days off to rest and recover." Ozpin gestured for the elevator.

Standing Cardin nodded. "Thank you sir."

The two adults watched as he returned to the elevator and the doors closed. "He's lying." Glynda said once the doors closed.

"Indeed but only about what was behind the door he mentioned, everything else was true. Whatever was beyond that door either disturbed him to the point he didn't wish to talk about it or..." He trailed off.

"Or?"

"He didn't think we'd believe him." Ozpin finished.

**With Cardin**

Reaching his dorm room Cardin sighed, the last time he saw his team they'd ditched him to deal with an ursa on his own. Pushing the door open he found the three all sitting on their beds seemingly waiting on him, each looking nervous and guilty. Cardin couldn't stop the scowl from forming on his face. "Hey Car-" He ghosted past Russel and entered the bathroom where he began undressing and jumped into the shower.

It took a bit longer than usual as he had to be careful not to get water on his bandages around his head, after getting out he quickly through on some shorts and left the bathroom before going straight for his bed. This time nobody tried to speak to him.

**The Forever Fall Forest**

The chosen undead sat silently in the room at the end of the several mile long tunnel just as he had for eons, he hadn't been awake for most of it instead he'd put himself into a deep hibernative sleep, and for the first time in what had to be an incredible amount of time his rest was disturbed. A random young man untouched by the undead curse stumbled into his tomb and woke him by opening the door and breaking the seal.

He'd been content to wait for the boy to leave and reset the seal, then he grabbed his blade and was about to draw it. He long ago swore to never draw the blade again, it was soaked in the blood of countless beings, from pitiful hollows to gods. Then there was the secret the blade held, he'd never let it again allow it to be used by anyone. He could've killed the boy to prevent him from telling others of his resting place but doing so to an innocent being who he know wouldn't rise again felt wrong to him. Instead he decided to take the boy to the entrance after he fainted.

A part of him had wished he hadn't done so, after pushing open the stone doors he caught an extremely brief glimpse of the outside world. The crimson forest and the waterfall hadn't been there before, the landscape had been covered in snow and giant dead trees that reached up into the clouds, there had been no beauty to be found. After seeing that brief glimpse however it became curious as to what else had changed, he'd been waging a war in his mind over whether or not to go see if only for a few moments. He remained seated against the wall for hours just debating over what to do.

Finally he made a decision, just a moment. Standing began walking the long hallway once again, moving at an average pace it took him just under two hours to reach the end, the doors were still open like they were before. He simply stared at the water as it fell, it was dark on the other side which made sense as it had been hours since he'd taken the boy to the exit, night had likely fallen several hours before. Taking a breath the chosen undead jumped through and plunged into the water below and for the first time in many many centuries he felt water against his flesh as he sank to the bottom with all of his gear.

Opening his mouth he began drink from the water that surrounded him, his bone dry throat accepted the moisture happily. After drinking his fill he walked along the bottom until he reached the edge and pulled himself out, the cool air of the nights breeze blew against him and through the openings in his armor. The feeling was beyond his ability to describe, never before had he felt so refreshed. He may not need water to survive but it was clear his body still craved it.

Reaching up he grabbed his helm and slowly removed it, he wanted to feel the wind fully on his face. Closing his eyes he simply stood there and enjoyed the feeling of the fresh air touching his scared and hideous face, the face of an undead. It wasn't until he reopened his eyes that he took on a look of surprise, he gazed up at the beautiful night sky, the star shined bright, but the moon. It was not the moon he remembered, this moon was shattered to pieces.

Turning his gaze back to the waterfall where his tomb hid far behind he felt a pit in his gut at the thought of actually returning, then he looked around at the forest and the pond. Maybe he didn't have to go back in, could he stay where he was. With a small smile the chosen undead walked over to a nearby tree and sat down cross legged. This would do nicely.

**Beacon**

Cardin laid back in his bed, the dorm room was empty besides him, his 'team' were all in class. His head was feeling far better after a proper night sleep and his aura recharging a bit. He was still tired but he felt fine now, the only thing really bugging him were the thoughts that kept returning to that knight. Who was he, what was he, why was he out there? He wasn't the overly curious type but even Cardin knew that nothing about the situation really made sense and that made him want to learn the truth even more.

Picking himself up out of bed he threw on a random t-shirt and pants and left his dorm to head to the mess hall, he was starving. The entire walk he thought about what he wanted to do about it, he was sure he could find his way back to the waterfall the entrance was hidden behind. The problem would be getting there, he didn't own a vehicle that could cover that kind of terrain. What would he do if he did get there, he wasn't even sure if the knight wouldn't attack him on sight this time. He hadn't said anything to him while he was there and had done everything he could to get rid of him as quickly as possible.

Cardin was so preoccupied with his own thoughts he completely failed to noticed a certain rabbit faunus who flinched as he walked past her as if expecting him to do something, nor did he notice glares he received form the three people walking with her. It wasn't until he'd gotten his food and sat down to eat that he left his own little world and looked around only to notice his 'team', if they could even be called that, approaching him. Each holding a tray and wearing their uniforms.

Sitting across from him they all looked guilty. "Look Cardin, we pussed out." Russel spoke up first.

Nodding Dove agreed. "Yeah, we left you behind and I'm not gonna lie, Arc had a bigger sack than any of us did when that ursa showed up." He had a clear look of shame on his face.

"We were cowards and if you'd have died back there, I'd never be able to look myself in the mirror again." Sky continued. "But I swear that'll never happen again, next time a big ass grimm shows up. I've got your back even if it kills me, so is there anyway you could give us a second shot?"

The other two nodded in agreement as they waited for their leaders reply. "You think I can just say I forgive you and it'll be over like that? You left me to die back there without even looking back, how am I suppose to trust any of you to have my back again? We're suppose to be a team and you three abandoned me to save your own asses." Cardin glared at the three as he spoke. "All it took was ONE ursa that Arc managed to take out on his own to get you all to turn tail and run, how can I possibly expect any of you to be there when a horde show up on a mission?" Cardin rose to his feet having finished half his meal already, grabbing the remainder of his sandwich he turned and left the pathetic looking group of teens sitting at the table.

**Two Days Later**

Cardin swiped his card at the rental shop and signed the several papers the clerk handed him before handing it back and following them to the ATV he rented for the day. On his back was a large backpack filled with everything he'd need to find and explore that tunnel behind the waterfall, this included a compass, heavy duty flash light with extra batteries, a rope and several other essentials like food and water. Of course at his waist sat his mace.

"The tank is full and should take you a good sixty miles, there are two spare fuel canisters but please note that using these will result in extra charge." The clerk explained handing him the keys.

Nodding Cardin took them and hopped on after thanking the man. Cranking the engine he began heading for Vales west gate. The drive didn't take long, it actually took longer for the guards at the gate to allow him through the gate. After showing his student ID from Beacon though they did allow him through, they did inform him that they weren't allowed to open the gate after ten at night without orders directly from Vale's Huntsmen director.

The next two hours were spent making his way towards the location of the waterfall, it was easier to find than he expected. After reaching the general area he stumbled upon the creek and began following it. Along the way he'd run into several small groups of grimm, they didn't pose much of a threat to him, he was a Beacon student after all.

It was a bit past noon when he reached the waterfall, looking up at it he was just barely able to make out the doors behind it. Turning back to his ATV Cardin pulled out a bottle of water and a sandwich, it was about time for lunch and he knew he'd need the energy for the long walk ahead of him.

He was about to take a bite when heard metal tap against metal nearby, looking around he was surprised to find the knight sitting underneath a tree about thirty feet away. He was sitting cross legged with several birds perched on him, his head was turned to face Cardin. Walking over to the knight Cardin stopped about ten feet away. "I didn't expect to see you out here, I was about to trek through that long ass tunnel." He gestured to the tunnel behind the waterfall. The knight made no attempt to reply, Cardin hadn't really expected any different though. "Look, I came here to thank you for helping me out the other day."

This time the knight tilted his head upwards ever so slightly as if to take a better look at the teen, it was only for a few moments however as he soon went back to his previous position. Taking a bite of his sandwich Cardin decided to take a seat though he made sure to give a respectable amount of distance to the knight. He wasn't really sure what else to say, or if he actually should say anything at all. As a man he'd felt obligated to thank this stranger who'd helped him out when he needed it. "How long have you been out here, are you a huntsmen?" He asked not really expecting an answer.

Just as thought he was met with silence. "You really don't say much do you, I bet the ladies love that." He laughed at his own joke.

Before he could say more however the knight stood and turned to the forest, Cardin stood as well but didn't understand why until a few moments later. A familiar growling became audible earning a groan from the teen. "Dammit, some must have followed me." Reading his weapon he paled a bit when the growling beast stepped through the brush surrounding the clearing around the waterfall.

The grimm stood over fifteen feet in height and was covered in large white spines, he remembered this from Port's class. It was an Amarok, a type of beowulf that was far more rare and powerful than it's more common kin. That however didn't make a lot of sense, Amarok's were solitary hunters if he remembered correctly, plus they were nocturnal. Why was one out in the middle of the day accompanied by so many other grimm? Regardless to the reason Cardin took a step backwards, Amarok were considered A-class grimm, generally requiring at least a second class huntsmen to defeat one on one, or a team of third or fourth class huntsmen. He was just a huntsmen in training placing him squarely in the range of a fifth class, in short he didn't stand much of a chance against that thing.

His train of thought was cut off as the knight stepped past him, his blade still sheathed at his hip. His shield on his arm, as he approached the ever growing horde of beasts Cardin noticed a faint glow growing brighter in his free hand. Oddly enough the grimm didn't charge at the knight right away, they remained at a distance though everyone had their gazes set solely on him. The knight stopped several yards away and held up his hand, bringing it against his chest Cardin watched in awe as a red aura began to rise from him, for a moment he even thought he felt a light pressure coming from him.

Then without warning he charged running straight for the Amarok, leaping into the air he slammed into the beast. The surrounding beasts all began surrounding the larger grimm at the knight, none paid Cardin any really mind. Cardin himself watched spell bound as the knight began slamming his armored fist into the giant wolf grimms jaw causing visible cracks to begin appearing. With a roar the grimm grabbed the knight with one of it's clawed hands and attempted to sink it's fangs into him, the knight however jammed his shield into the beasts maw sideways then delivered another bone crushing blow to the monsters throat forcing it to release him. Dropping to the ground the knight immediately charged and slammed all his wait into one of the wolfs legs sending it off balance. Pivoting around the leg the knight let out the first vocalization of any kind Cardin had so far heard in the form of a roar of effort as he lifted the massive wolf and brought it down onto the ground causing the area to shake a little upon impact.

Before the beast could recover the knight jumped onto it's chest and grabbed the shield that was still jammed into the beasts mouth and ripped it about before using it to bash the Amarok in the face with the edge repeatably. Cardin had scene huntsmen fight before, his uncle was a second class huntsmen and had taught him most of what he knew before he entered Beacon. This was not how a huntsmen fought, there was no grace in the knights attacks, no flashy movements or techniques. This was simply brute strength and sheer brutality, the knight didn't seem to care about any damage he might be taking having already shrugged of several nasty looking blows from the beast as he continued to beat the monster into submission. Even when the wolf managed to kick him off and separate him from his shield the knight didn't attempt to take a more conservative stratagem, instead he met the beast head on when it charged. Upon impacting the beast he grabbed a hold of its throat with the hand with the glow and soon to Cardin's surprise the Amarok began howling in agony, then from it's opened maw fire began spewing forth. That should've been impossible as there had never been a reported case of a Amarok breathing fire, than he realized that it wasn't.

The Amarok was not the source of the flames, somehow the knight had burned a hole through the creatures throat and was shooting a stream of fire inside of it. This continued for nearly thirty more seconds before the A-class grimm dropped to it's knees and the knight jumped off landing near his shield. The monster laid still, it's now smoldering corpse beginning to turn to dust just as all grimm did upon death. The knight stood after grabbing his shield, Cardin only then realized that the knight still hadn't drawn his blade, he'd just watched a man kill an extremely dangerous and powerful grimm with basically his bare hands. He almost wished he'd have been filming it with his scroll to post online. He didn't doubt for a moment that it would be on the front page of HuntsTube for weeks.

"CARDIN!" A voice shouted from behind him causing him and several of the beast to turn and finally take notice of his presence. Standing far above at the top of the waterfall his team stood looking down, weapons in hand they all jumped and landed not far from him. "What the hell are you doing out here?" Russel asked.

"Me? What the hell are you doing out here?" Cardin responded to the three teens.

"We decided to follow you." Dove spoke up. "We were gonna go back to Beacon until we saw you drive to the gate and leave the city."

"So we decided to why the hell you were out here." Sky added as he raised his halberd. "Kinda glad we did to, it looks like you could use some back up."

The four boys then turned to the one sided slaughter going on nearby, the knight was decimating the grimm around him with just his fists, his shield and the occasional burst of flame. "I think he's doing just fine." Cardin said before looking to the grimm moving in on them. "I on the other hand would love the help."

**Two Hours Later**

The Chosen Undead sat cross legged beneath the tree he'd claimed as his own, nearby the four boys all laid out on the ground panting heavily. He'd been impressed by their skill and stamina, they fought will a level of strength and grace he didn't often see in normal people. It wasn't until about an hour into the battle that he'd begun to notice the first signs of fatigue from them, he wasn't comparing them to himself, such wouldn't be a fair comparison. He was an undead, and beyond that he wouldn't be boasting if he said he was likely among the most powerful undead in existence. He held the souls of lords and demons, dragons and beasts, he was far from the average undead. If needed he could fight nonstop for days on end without rest.

These boys however were just that, boys. Barely old enough to hold a blade let alone wield one with the skill they'd displayed. The beasts they'd battled weren't very powerful, the strongest of them could hardly compare to even a taurus demon, even still they'd impressed him. While he'd defeated the majority of the beasts he'd taken notice of their individual fighting styles, they caused a feeling of nostalgia.

Pulling out his bottomless box, the trusty container that held all of knick knacks he'd picked up in his travels and stuck his hand in. Even after having it for years he still didn't completely understand how the box worked, all he had to do was think about the item he was looking for and he would pull it out. Even with the countless things he'd should in it over the years he never had to search for anything. Withdrawing his hand he held four small objects, the boys had reminded him of their previous owners.

He stared at them for several minutes before turning his gaze over to the four boys, they'd all sat up and had begun talking with each other. From what he could tell they were discussing how one of them, the one with light brown hair that wielded a sword, had suffered the loss of his weapon. He was looking it over, it was snapped in two by the jaws of one of the beasts. He'd also noticed how odd their weapons were, but compared to many things he'd seen in his time they were hardly even noteworthy.

Looking back to the items in his hand he stood and began walking over to the group earning their attention. With his free hand he grabbed one and tossed it to the first boy he'd met, the one with the mace. As the boy caught it he spoke his first word in countless millennia. "Wolf." The boy looked surprised at the sound of his voice before looking down at the object in his hands. It was a ring with the engraving of a wolf.

The Chosen Undead turned the next boy, the one with the odd haircut that wielded daggers. He tossed the next ring to him. "Hornet." Next he looked to the one who used the halberd and tossed him a ring. "Lion." Finally he looked to the last boy, the one with the broken weapon. He'd seen the boy demonstrate an impressive level of skill in marksmanship, his broken sword somehow being able to fire projectiles. He tossed the last ring to him. "Hawk."

He watched as the four boys looked over the rings, turning he moved to return to his tree. "Wait." The first boy stood. "What do these mean?"

The Chosen Undead didn't reply, instead he reached into his box once more and grabbed something he'd nearly forgotten about. Pulling out a book he examined the cover, it was beyond ancient but he could barely make out the image on the cover. The Four Knights of Gwyn, the book that had inspired him to become a knight himself as a child, long before he became undead. He held the book out to the boy, he hardly needed it anymore, he'd long since met and slain his old hero's, maybe these young men could use such inspiration. "Read, learn." He spoke once more, his voice was rough like gravel and deeper then any of the boys had ever heard.

Once the boy accepted the book he continued to his spot beneath the tree, he didn't respond further that day.

**Five Days Later**

Cardin looked over the book in his hands, he'd already flipped through it several times but had found out immediately that it was written in the same incomprehensible language as the message that had been on the door the knight had originally been behind. He could make heads or tails of it, then there was the ring on his finger, it might have been even more strange than the book itself. While wearing the ring, he wasn't sure how to explain it, but he felt more balanced more sturdy. He'd noticed it for the first time in combat practice, he'd taken a direct blow to the face from Xiao Long and while the hit had knocked away the last of his aura he himself had barely budged.

He wasn't the only one to notice the odd affects of the rings either. Dove had sworn up and down that while he was using the schools shooting range his aim had improved drastically, he'd even managed to beat Rose's high score on the timed trial while using one of the rental rifles from the school, the same rifles everyone always complained about firing off center.

Russel and Sky had both improved as well, in just a few days Glynda had remarked that their improvement was noticeable. All this only made Cardin want to decipher the book even more. The knight had told him to learn from it and he desperately wanted to do just that. "Mr. Winchester!" Cardin's head shot up and found that the entire class was looking at him, the one who'd called his name being none other than Professor Port himself. "I apologize if my story isn't as interesting as your book but I'll have to ask you to pay attention all the same." He held out his hand to the boy. With a sigh he handed the book over to the teacher who took it over to his desk and placed it in the drawer. "You may retrieve it after class."

The class continued normally for nearly another hour until Port was called out of the room and Oobleck took over the class, when it had finally ended Cardin had been extremely frustrated when the Doctor had told him he couldn't remove the book from another staff members desk and that the leader of team CDRL would have to wait until tomorrow to get it from the professor.

"Hey Cardin." He heard his name called and turned to his teammate. "Dove just got word that his new weapon is finished, wanna head into Vale to pick it up?" Sky asked.

Shrugging the Winchester nodded. "Sure, I don't see why not, classes are done for the day." The two teens walked together to the airpads in relative silence, Dove and Russel would be meeting them there.

"So, you make any progress with the book?" Sky asked clearly just trying to start a conversation.

Cardin shook his head. "No, I don't even know where to start with it. I even checked the library, I couldn't find a single language that looked even close to the script it's written in." He then let out a tired sigh. "Doesn't matter anyway, Port has it and I'll have to wait till tomorrow to get it back."

Upon arriving Cardin noticed Dove was in higher spirits than usual, he looked downright giddy as he waited to board the airship. "What's got you so worked up?" Cardin asked his teammate.

"I finally get a new weapon of course! You have no clue how tired I got of using that damned sword." He explained to his leader. "It was a hand me down from my brother, once he graduated and got his license he had himself an all weapon built. My family isn't exactly rich so we couldn't afford a new one and I was never good at building one myself. But now I'm a Beacon student and the school is paying a large chunk of the bill."

The four boys all began boarding as the doors opened. "What kind of weapon did you get?" Russel asked.

The boy smiled widely. "Come on, you'll see when we get there."

**Elsewhere**

The Chosen Undead stared up at the sky, his mind wandered to just how different everything was. The stars even looked off the night before, and the moon, he could only imagine what kind of event must have taken place to shatter it so. Then there were those boys, they rode on such odd steads, four wheels and louder than any horse. Of course there were also those beasts he fought, they were odd but nothing he wasn't use to, in fact compared to the demons of his time they were down right pitiful.

His eyes moved to the waterfall that hid his tomb behind it, how long had he been in this self imposed exile from the world. He'd originally locked himself away in an attempt to put an end to the battles, he'd been tired, exhausted really. He couldn't remember anything of his past beyond brief flashes, such as his former admiration of the four knights of Gwyn, other than that the only thing he could remember were the countless battles and enemies he'd slain during his time.

Now however, his time had long passed by, those boy were completely untouched by the undead curse. Standing to his feet the undead walked over to where the boys stead had sat, he could see the strange tracks it's wheels had left. "Maybe." He whispered to himself.

Once again on a whim he decided to do something without much reason to it and he began walking, the tracks in the dirt leading his way.

He continued walking for hours simply following the tracks, where they would lead him he hadn't the slightest clue, but instead of thinking about these things he instead just kept walking. Along the way he encountered several of the beasts from before but they each fell with ease, his bare hands were more than enough for them. As he walked the sun set and rose again by the time he reach the end of the trail, he stared upwards at the giant structure before him. It was a metal wall that stood at least eighty feet high.

The tracks lead to an opening in the wall that was guarded by several men holding strange objects, by the way they held them he could safely assume that they were weapons of some sort. As he approached the men didn't seem concerned about his presence, a few even smiled and nodded, that was definitely something he was not use to. Usually the most polite thing normal people would do to undead would be to simply spit in their direction, at worst they enslave, imprison or exterminate them. "Afternoon huntsmen, slay anything impressive today?" One of the men asked as he neared.

Not wanting to be rude the Chosen Undead responded by raising his hand and tilted it back and forth to symbolize the so-so gesture. With a chuckle the man gesture for him to enter, something that surprised him further. Normally entering a city was a bit more difficult than that for someone in full armor and armed. Perhaps it was do to the title the guard and referred to him as, a huntsmen, maybe that was a respected position in this culture. Shrugging he walked through the gate, he was quickly stopped in his tracks at the sight before him.

Everything was different to anything he'd ever seen before in his long life. Building reached up into the sky higher than the greatest towers of Anor Londo, the roads were covered in black stone and horseless carriages speeding along them at incredible speeds. People walked along the sides of the roads wearing odd clothing without any signs of armor or weaponry. He began walking along the side of the road like the other civilians, some gave him strange looks, whether this was because he stood at nearly seven feet tall or because he was fully encased in armor he didn't know.

He didn't know how long he walked nor did he care, he was simply enjoying taking in his surroundings. He watched as large metal machines flew through the sky above. "Oh my gosh look at that armor!" He heard before the feeling of someone up behind him began sending red flags to his head. Spinning around he held up his hand with embers already glowing in his palm ready to summon an inferno at a moments notice, he stopped however when he saw a young girl looking startled by his preparation to turn her to ashes. Throwing her arms up she jumped back. "Wait wait! I'm sorry, I didn't mean any harm!" She shouted as three more girls came running over, the Chosen Undead remained still with his arm raised.

"Hey, what's the big idea with threatening my sister for no reason?!" A blonde girl wearing an extremely revealing outfit shouted at him.

"Calm down Yang, this is Ruby's fault. Didn't anyone ever teach you not to run up behind a hunter." A white haired girl spoke this time before approaching him, he lowered his hand slightly. "I'm sorry about her, she's very excitable."

The undead warrior didn't reply, instead he simply dropped his hand, turning away from the four girls he decided to just walk away. He heard the first girl shout another apology as he continued walking. "Hey, don't ignore us when we're trying to be polite!" The recognized the blondes voice as he felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder.

In an instant his instincts kicked in and he grabbed her arm and flipped her over his shoulder and slammed her back first into the ground with enough force to send cracks webbing and chunks flying into the air, fire covered his fist as he brought it down onto the ground next to her head again destroying the concrete and melting any rocks touching his glowing fist. The girls eyes were red now and anger oozed from her, however the knight could also sense a bit of fear there as well.

"Woah woah enough!" The undead was surprised to hear a familiar voice shout from nearby. Looking up he saw the four boy from the forest running there way. The first boy, the one with the mace, arrived and placed his hand on the knights shoulder. "Hey, calm down man."

The knight stared at him for several seconds before standing back to his full height and stepping away from the downed girl. "Wolf." He said just loud enough for him to hear.

"Cardin, of course you'd know this asshole. He totally just attacked us!" The blonde girl shouted as she got to her feet with some help from her team.

"Actually Yang, you grabbed him first." The black haired girl with the bow finally spoke for the first time.

"I was just trying to get him to stop and listen!" She responded. "Who is this guy anyway?"

"He's my cousin." The blurted out, the look on his face was filled with surprise by his own words.

**Moments Earlier**

Cardin didn't quite believe his eyes at first when he saw the familiar figure of the knight walking along the sidewalk. "Dude Car, isn't that that knight from the forest?" Russel's voice broke him from his stupor.

"And isn't that team RWBY running up to him?" Sky asked causing the leader to look to the blur of black and red moving towards the knight followed by the three other members of the all female team. "Think they know him?"

His question was answered almost immediately by the knight raising his hand and preparing a fire based attack like he did in the forest, he wasn't sure why he felt the need to intervene but Cardin began walking towards the conflict waiting to happen. He felt a bit relieved when the knight turned to walk away, then Xiao Long went and grabbed his shoulder, that's when he began sprinting. He was only a few yards away when the knight slammed the girl into the pavement so hard he felt the vibrations in his feet. "Woah woah enough!" He yelled as he neared the group. The knight looked up at him, slowly and carefully Cardin placed his hand on the knights shoulder. "Hey, calm down man." He told the knight without any aggression in his voice.

They stared at each other for several seconds and Cardin was nervous that the knight, who he'd seen tear apart an A-class grimm with his bare hands, was about drag him into a fight. Thankfully however the knight stood back up and stepped away from the girl. "Wolf." Cardin heard the knight say just as he did when he gave his team the rings. The teen couldn't help but feel a bit of pride form in his chest at hearing the new nickname.

"Cardin, of course you'd know this asshole. He totally just attacked us!" Xiao Long yelled at him as she got up with the help of her team.

"Actually Yang, you grabbed him first." Belladonna spoke up.

"I was just trying to get him to stop and listen!" The blonde shouted back. "Who is this guy anyway?" She demanded.

"He's my cousin." Even he wasn't sure why he decided upon that as a response, he didn't really think it through. The knight looked to him once again but like always he didn't say anything. "And last time I checked Xiao Long, he doesn't owe you anything. Come on Knight." It wasn't the most creative name he could think of but it was the first.

The knight only hesitated for a moment as the boy began leading him and the other three boys away from the group of girls, but then with a shrug he decided to do so and follow the four.

Less then a day into this new world and he was already someones 'cousin'. So many things had changed, but at least life was still interesting.

**So this chapter is easily more than double the length of anything I've ever written before, DO NOT expect chapters of this length for my other stories. I will likely be updating this story once in a blue moon, mainly because the chapter length. For once I've actually planned ahead with this story so I'm excited. Until next time.**


	2. Chapter 2

**More people were into a CRDL fic, I'm happy supply something new. Let's begin.**

"What the hell was that all about?" Cardin finally asked the knight after they were all several blocks away. The knight didn't respond and instead just stared at the teen who soon let out an exasperated sigh before running his hands through his hair. "Whatever, it doesn't really matter. So what are you doing here?" Cardin asked him, he didn't know why he asked as he knew he wouldn't receive an answer from the almost perpetually silent warrior.

"I doesn't really matter, he can come with us to get my weapon, let's go." Dove interrupted before he continued walking.

Cardin looked to Knight who surprisingly nodded towards the boy walking ahead and began following. Together the group walked for another ten minutes before they arrived at a large store with a sign in the shape of a gun and sword crossed. Knight looked up at it for a few seconds before following the four boys inside, the walls were covered in hundreds of weapons, many of which the undead could even begin to identify. The boys all walked to the counter and began speaking with the clerk, the knight however moved over towards one of the walls that held dozens of blades of every shape and size, grabbing the first that caught his attention he lifted it up and inspected it.

A frown grew on his face as he looked it over, it was a standard short sword with some strange contraption attached to it's guard. He grabbed the top of the blade with his hand while his other hand held the swords handle, slowly he began to apply pressure, within a few seconds the swords blade snapped in half with a loud crack. "Trash." He muttered to himself as he look over the now broken weapon. Grabbing the next one, a claymore he repeated the process and once again the metal broke easily under his strength. He continued this with half a dozen more blades, the broken weapons laid at his feet.

"What the hell are you doing?!" He heard a man shout from behind him, turning he saw the clerk standing looking furious with the four boy standing behind him looking completely speechless.

Raising the current weapon his his hands, a mace, and quickly bent the shaft of the weapon without any visible effort. "Weak." He said before dropping the now ruined weapon.

"GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY SHOP ALL OF YOU!" He shouted.

"But what about my weapon?" Dove asked being the first to snap out of the daze.

"NOW!" He shouted again before he began pushing them all out the door and slamming it behind him.

The group stood silently for several seconds before Dove turned on the knight. "What the hell is wrong with you?!" He demanded taking a step towards Knight only for Cardin to step in between them, not really to keep Dove from hurting the knight but in fact the other way around, all Xiao Long had done was grab him and he nearly flattened her skull.

"Woah, let's calm down here." The young leader told his teammate.

"Weak metal." The four heard the undead speak.

"What are you talking about, they were standard steel and titanium alloys, most weapons are made of them." Russel threw in. Out of the four boy he considered himself the biggest weapons geek, he wasn't on Rose's level but he knew more that the average person. So when the knight reached into the strange box and pulled out a fist sized rock his eyes nearly bulged out of his head as he knew exactly what it was. "Holy shit!" He quickly took the chunk of black stone and began looking it over.

"What's that?" Sky asked, by this point Cardin had managed to some what calm Dove and the pair were looking at the rock.

"This is titanite!" He said looking over the rock more closely.

"The fuck is titanite?" Dove asked still sounding irritated.

"It's a ridiculously rare and strong metal used for reinforcing and enhancing weapons and armor. It's suppose to be so strong that a blade made with enough of it would never need to be sharpened again." He explained to the four before handing it back to the knight.

"Why isn't it used more widely then?" Cardin asked curiously.

"Well aside from the fact that there are less than a handful of smiths on Remnant that still know how to properly use it, it's pretty much a lost art at this point, but as I said, it's super rare and expensive. A chunk that size could easily go for nearly a million lien on the black market. It's rarer than diamonds." Hearing this caused all the three others to whip around and look at the stone in the knights hand.

"Okay so he's got a super expensive chunk of rock, I still don't have a weapon!" Dove growled with crossed arms. The knight just stared at the angry teen then he looked to the chunk of titanite, he stepped forward until he was about a foot away from the boy, he easily towered over him. Dove lost some color from his face as the same knight he and his team had watched tear apart a horde of grimm with his bear hands loomed over him. Then he held the chunk of rock out to the teen confusing him. "What? Are you... giving that to me?" He asked, his face shifting to a look of surprise.

The knight gave a nod. "Dude, if you get a weapon made with that it'll be better than anything else at Beacon!" Russel said excitedly.

"Didn't you say it was hard to find people who could still work with the stuff?" Cardin asked.

"Well this is one of the four largest cities on the planet, let's see if there are any smiths that use it in Vale." Sky spoke up with his scroll already out and searching, within a minute he had something. "Wow, you weren't kidding about the whole lost art thing. It says here there are only six master smiths on Remnant that are recognized as qualified to work with titanite. Terry Obsidian, a private contractor for the Vacuo military. Canary Goldmane, a retired weapons designer in Atlas. A pair of brothers in Mistral. Ah! Here we go, there are two in Vale, one is Serana Sanguine who owns 'Best Defense Arms'."

"I know that place, there on the other side of town. I heard you gotta order weapons from there months in advance." Cardin shook his head. "What about the last one, you said there were six right?"

"Yeah, Andre former owner of Andre's Astorian Arts. He retired over twenty years ago and teaches part time at Signal Academy on Patch Island." Sky read, none of the boy noticed the knights head snap to attention at the mention of the name.

"Andre?" His voice sounded surprised as the four looked to him.

"You know him?" Cardin asked. Knight nodded before gesturing to his shield an armor. "He made your gear?" He gave a nod once again in response. "You think he'd come out of retire to make Dove a new weapon?" The knight gave one last nod. "Well then I guess we're headed to Patch guys."

**Hours Later**

It was nearly dark by the time the four teens and the knight actually made it to Patch, it had been difficult to get Knight on board the fairy from the mainland to the island without any form of identification, not to mention is refusal to say more than a single word every other blue moon. They'd had to explain that he was an active huntsmen who just returned from beyond the wall where he'd lost his bag containing his scroll, ID, money and pretty much everything else. They also said he was mute do to a neck injury.

The security didn't really believe them until the had demanded they see proof the he was in fact a huntsmen before they let him on board with a weapon, apparently the knight lifted his helm from his head and revealed his face to the guard while everyone else were distracted with another guard. Shortly after the guard who'd lost every bit of color from his face allowed them aboard without any further delay. When they'd asked him about it he'd only shrug in response.

"I'm starting to think we should've waited till tomorrow to do this." Sky said looking up at the setting sun.

"The boats run all night, worst case scenario we get back super late." Cardin responded waving him off. "Now where does this guy live?" He asked looking to the knight. The only response he got was another shrug. "I thought you knew this guy." He said raising an eyebrow.

The knight pointed to the sun and then across the sky. "So you knew him a long time ago?" Russel asked trying to decipher the gesture, the knight nodded. "Well then I guess we gotta ask around then." The mohawked boy said before walking over to the ticket stall for the boat, within a few more minutes he returned. "Well that was easy, he lives on the other side of the island near a cove. About an hour walk."

"An hour walk means a half hour jog, lets get moving." Cardin told the three other boys and the knight before he took off, the others closely behind him.

The run took roughly forty minutes before they reached the cove they were told about, on the other side of said cove they could see smoke raising into the sky. Slowing to a much more relaxed pace the group approached the small home with a smoking chimney, a short distance behind the house was a larger wooden building of some kind. To the side of the house was another small wooden building with a fence around it and an area about the size of a basketball court, within the small building they could see the rear end of what looked like a horse standing inside. "Guys, I think we should come back tomorrow. It's a little late for this isn't it?" Dove asked as the knight ignored him and walked up to the door giving it several hard bangs with his fist. Dove sighed. "Or not."

They heard a bang followed by several loud curses. "Son of a mother whore. Who the hell is it?" A familiar voice shouted from the other side of the door as the sound of locks being undone could be heard. "Ruby Rose if that's you with a barely chipped blade again I'm gonna roast your family dog with a side of-" The door swung open and the giant mans eyes went wide as he saw the knight. "Gwyn's balls." He whispered in shock. The pair simply stood staring at one another for what felt like hours. "Lad, is that really you?" He finally asked.

Reaching down he grabbed the sheath of his blade and pulled it from his waist showing to the old smith. "It's me." The knight said simply.

Andre grew a smile and began laughing loudly. "Well singed my beard and call me hollow, the Chosen Undead, killer of gods is back!" He shouted loudly before slapping the knights shoulder hard enough to make him stumble, not an easy thing to do. Looking past the knight at the four boys he raised an eyebrow. "And ye brought a posse, well no sense standing out here. Come on in, I was just about to crack open a fresh cask."

The five followed smith into his home where he walked over to a cask against the wall and began prying it open. Stepping back Russel grabbed Cardin and whispered to him. "Did he just call that knight dude an undead god killer?" He asked with an incredulous look on his face.

Cardin frowned as he thought back to how he originally found the knight, alone in an ancient tunnel looking like he had moved in centuries. Cardin then shook his head, jumping to crazy conclusions would only cause trouble. He'd find out for sure before he started freaking out. "Probably just a nickname, maybe he killed some super crazy grimm and his pal call him a god killer." Russel just shrugged before looking back to the smith set out several mugs filled with some kind of alcohol base off the smell.

"So let me guess, you've probably been sleeping in some cave in the arse end of nowhere all this time haven't ye?" Andre asked sitting down and taking a large swig from his tankard. "Why chose now to come back if I might ask, sure there are a fair share of problems, and you've certainly missed quite a bit, but nothing worse then previous cycles." The knight gestured towards Cardin before grabbing a mug and raising it to the face of his helm and simply inhaling its aroma. Andre then looked to the largest of the teens. "I see, so he woke you up. What's yer name boy?" Andre asked.

"Uh, Cardin Winchester sir." Cardin answered.

"Don't sir me boy, I'm just an old blacksmith not some stiff general. So why did ya wake our friend here?" He asked the orange haired teen.

"I just fell into a tunnel and found himself sitting against a wall, what do you mean woke him up?" He asked as the blacksmith began laughing loudly once again.

"So ya found him on accident did ye, boy ya got no idea what ya stumbled upon do ya?" Andre looked back to the knight. "You haven't told them have ya?" The knight shook his head before gesturing to the blacksmith to go on not really seeing any point in keeping secrets. "Boy, you fell into the resting place of one of the greatest heros in the history of this world." A snort could be heard from the knight who shook his head. "Ye might not thinks so lad, but what you did set forth the motions that have shaped the path this world is on. Ya weren't the only one, there've been a few since yer day that have done similar, but ya were the first."

"I'm sorry, but what exactly are you talking about? I've never heard of this guy and you're talking as if he's some kind to legendary folk hero, who exactly is he?" Sky finally asked what the four teens had been thinking.

"Of course ya haven't heard a him, history forgot em before the moon even broke." He laughed. "He and I are older than dust itself son, much older, such is the fate of an undead."

The room was quiet for nearly a minute after that before Dove stood. "Welp, that's where I draw the line on crazy." He said starting to move towards the door.

Andre shook his head. "I don't know whether to smile or sneer at the disbelief. The undead curse has been all but non-existent since long before those brother gods showed up." Andre looked to Knight. "I doubt you've got much humanity left, show em yur face lad." The knight hesitate for a few moments, even Dove had stopped at the chance to see the knights face.

Standing the knight grabbed the sides of his helm and slowly lifted it, the teens eyes widened and horror grew on their faces. Holding the metal helm down by his side he looked over all the inhabitants of the room. His skin was beyond pale, his face sunken in, he look like a corpse in armor. "Okay, so he's fuck ugly, that doesn't mean he's some kind of zombie." Dove sounded extremely nervous as he stared at the knight just as the rest of his teammates did.

"Watch yer mouth boy, he may not care but ye won't disrespect him in my home." Andre growled before grabbing a nearby knife. "I'm no different myself though I don't look it, watch this." He took the knife as brought it across his chest opening a very large gash, the knight reached down into a pouch on his belt and pulled out a glowing yellow and orange flask of some kind and handed it to the smith who nodded and took a sip. In a flash of golden light the wound all but disappeared. "Only an undead can use an estus flask, we're a sturdier bunch than most normal humans."

The four boys stood in awe, after several seconds there was a loud bang as Dove collapsed unconscious. "For fear of more of that, let me explain a bit further." The smith said before continuing.

**The Next Morning**

Dove yawned as he picked himself off the old musty smelling couch, he paused for a second as he looked around and tried to remember where he was. A few moments later the memories of the previous night came crashing back and he jumped from the couch and ran to the front door. As he barged through it and outside he was met with the morning sun, nearby he heard the familiar shouting of his team. Down on the sandy shore of the cove he saw the three running laps along the edge of the water like they did in the Beacon gym every morning.

Looking around he didn't see either the knight or the blacksmith anywhere nearby so he ran down to the shore where his friends were exercising. "Hey, look who finally woke up!" Cardin shouted as he slowed down while running up to the teen.

"What the fuck are we doing here still, we just found out that these guys are fucking ZOMBIES!" Dove shouted looking panicked. "Their probably gonna try and eat our guts and shit!"

"Dude dude chill." Russel placed his hand on the teens shoulder. "After you fainted." Dove then Sky cough and call him a pussy earning a laugh from Cardin and a glare from the boy in question. "After that they, well Andre, explained everything. And yeah their basically immortal zombies, but not like the movies, it's not contagious and they don't eat people."

"How are you all you fuckin calm about this, you just said the words 'immortal zombies' with a straight face!" Dove shouted.

"Oh we all already kinda had our own group freak out session, but after spending most of the night talking it over we kinda came to terms with it. Also we figured this would kinda be a fuckin sweet team secret, like how JNPR have a leader who snuck into Beacon and whatever RWBY have, cuz they totally have something." Cardin explained to the nearly frantic boy.

Dove closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. "Okay, so you three are saying to just let this go. We've got a zombie knight walking around, and you guys are cool with that?" He spoke with his eyes still closed.

"Well while you were out they kinda explained a lot more, and I'll admit we still don't believe even close to half of it. But yeah, we're pretty cool with it." Sky nodded.

"Besides, Knight saved my life and fought our side against those grimm. I don't know about you guys, but for Winchester's when fight side by side with someone they become brothers in arms. I trust him enough to give him the benefit of the doubt." Cardin said crossing his arms.

"Look at it this way, these 'zombies' have apparently been around for a REALLY long time and have caused anyone any problems, plus according to Andre there less than a handful still on Remnant including him and Knight. So it's not like we're looking at an invasion." Russel added.

Dove took a few more deep breaths. "Okay, I'm still freaking the fuck out right now, but I'm trying. Where exactly are they right now anyway?"

Cardin pointed to the smoke rising from behind the house. "The old mans forge, after explaining everything we told him why we originally came by and he agreed to make your weapon." Cardin explained. "Well actually he didn't agree at first but after handing over that titanite and some kind of ember the old man got all excited and took Knight to help him. That was a little after midnight and they've been in there ever since."

"He even took our weapons to, he said he was gonna reinforce them." Russel said with an excited grin. "I did some more research and this Andre dude is the real fuckin deal. Before he retired people would pay boat loads for his work, some of the most famous huntsmen in history got their gear from him. Qrow Death Scythe, Scarlet Two Barrels, Dante The Dust Storm, Maria The Grimm Reaper, he made all their weapons. And he's doing it free of charge."

Dove's eyebrow raised in surprise. "Seriously?" He asked incredulously.

"Yeah, apparently being an immortal 'zombie' gives a guy plenty of time to get good at what you do." Cardin laughed.

Dove nodded his head looking to have calmed down quite a bit. "Okay, maybe I was being a little unreasonable." He said earning a round of laughs from the other teens.

"Wow, you freak out until you find out you're getting a legend grade weapon made with ridiculously rare and expensive materials for free and then you're cool with it. Boys help me throw this shallow idiot into the shallow waters." Cardin laughed grabbing his teammate by the shoulder. Before Dove could try to fight back the other two members of his team grabbed him and hefted him up before taking him to the edge of the water and tossing him into the chilly morning water, the group never stopped laughing the entire time.

**Several Hours Later**

Team CRDL walked down the path towards the old mans place once again, it was just a little past noon and they'd decided to head into town for some lunch. It wasn't until they were in sight of the house once again that they noticed the knight standing on the shore of the cove, in his hand was a long sword. At his hip his actual long sword still sat in it's sheath, the one in his hand looked far more new and polished. He simply continued to swing the blade over and over in the same fashion.

"Hey Knight!" Cardin shouted getting the armored mans attention. "How are those weapons coming along?" He asked, in response the knight just gesture towards the house before going back to whatever he was doing.

Looking to his team Cardin shrugged and walked to the house before giving a quick knock. "Come on in." Andre could be heard from inside. Pushing open the door the four all filed in, Andre sat leaning back in a large and old looking reclining chair, a small and just as old looking radio sat on a table nearby playing music. He point to the wall next to the fire place. "Yer weapons are all finished, had the existing three done in two hours. Building the new took a bit longer than that. Luck for you I'm the fastest damn smith you'll ever meet." He chuckled.

The four all walked over and grabbed their weapons, Cardin, Russel and Sky all inspected the weapons with clear interest. Each was noticeably heavier and the colors were a shade darker, but it was clear that just by looking at them that they were much higher quality. Dove on the other hand was in complete awe of the weapon he held in his hands. It was a lever action rifle with an extendable barrel and a multi caliber chamber which would allow him to switch between standard rifle rounds for mid to long range, and high caliber round for long to extreme range combat. Flipping a switch caused the rifle to fold in on itself and take the for of a large one handed war axe. Engraved into the side of the axe head was a very same image of a hawk that was on the ring around his finger. In fact each of the teams weapons now sported a matching engraving to the rings in their possessions.

"Now ye lads need to remember, a weapon is only as good as the hands holdin it. Those might be top quality but that's meaningless if you don't use it right." Andre explained leaning back further. "Also, the Chosen lad outside is gonna be stayin here for a while until I can get him up to speed on how things work on Remnant nowadays. Now get out, I didn't sleep last night and I'm exhausted." With that he shewed the four boy from his home.

**Elsewhere**

"I spy with my little eye, somethiiiiiiiing red." A young sounding woman said as she rolled under an attack from a giant grimm snake as it lunged towards her.

_"The grimm's eyes?" _A voice spoke within her head.

"No." She replied as she unsheathed the blade of one of the long katana's strapped to her hip. Her face was hidden behind a silver mask and a tricorn hat, peaking out the back of the hat was a long crimson red pony tail. She wore a very old looking gold embroidered trench coat with equally old looking silver gauntlets. Tanned leather boots and trousers.

In a blur she cut the giant snake in two without any visible effort, the blade of the weapon bore uncanny streaks along the it's length. _"The leaves and grass?" _The voice spoke again referring to the surrounding Foreverfall Forest. Before she could reply however four more of the giant snake grimm burst from the ground below her.

"That counts as two guess's, and no." She said shaking her head. Reaching into her coat she quickly pulled out a talisman that appeared to be made of cloth and began whispering as she ran the cloth along the length of her blade, as she did this golden sparks of lightening began leaping across the blade in all directions. One of the beasts dived towards her with its mouth wide open in an attempt to swallow her, side stepping she thrust the blade directly into the eye of the monster as it passed her by, with the blade stuck in the beast she was forced to slide along the ground with it. Twisting the blade she then forced the blade downward nearly bisecting the snake.

_"Your hair?"_ The voice asked.

"You know I can't see my hair in this mask." She laughed as two of the remaining snake attacked. Jumping up into a tree she continued to laugh as the monsters followed her, what the monsters never noticed however was the fact that their bodies were slowly being tied together in a knot. Within a minute the woman stood on the tangled mass of the snakes. "I can't believe the always fall for this, how many times have we pulled this off?" She asked looking down at the snakes.

_"Thirty one times, if you count those two times you did it by accident. Also, their blood?" _The voice replied.

Raising the talisman once again whispering something under her breath she quickly brought down a giant stake of lightning onto the tangled snake easily blowing a hole through them and into the ground below, the remains quickly fading. "I told those were on purpose, and no." She flicked her blade clean and slowly began sheathing it as the final snake approached from behind.

_"I give up."_

The snake attacked only for a blur to drop down from above it and cleanly remove it's head before it could reach her. "It was Qrow's cape, HEY QROW!" She shouted while waving the the huntsmen that was walking over to her.

"Ashe." He nodded before pulling a flask for his shirt. "What are you doing all the way out here? I thought you were over in Vacuo hunting that giant sand sifter." He asked taking a swig.

"We were but it turns out that the 'Giant' part was exaggerated, it was only a couple feet longer than normal. So me and Midir decided to try our luck in finding the Amarok that's been rumored to have taken over this stretch of the Foreverfall as it's territory." She answered patting the frayed looking blade at her hip, the blade itself was hidden inside of the newer looking black wooden sheath. "What about you, weren't you looking for the one who attacked one of Ozma's girls?" She asked removing her mask and putting it into her coat revealing a young and beautiful face. Her skin was pale and her eyes were a nearly glowing pink, still the huntsmen could see a darkness behind those eyes. He knew far to well that her appearance reflected nothing about her, she was old, very old and very strong.

Qrow sighed stowing his flask back into his coat. "Yeah but he asked me to check something out for him, one of his students went missing around here a while back." He explained.

"Well their probably dead then, this place has been crawling with high level grimm, even before I showed up." She responded getting a shake of the head in response.

"Nah they found the kid the next day but according to him he fell into an undocumented ruin and saw something interesting. What it was need don't know, so he wants me to check it out." Qrow corrected her before he continued walking.

"Want me to tag along, sounds like a good time?" She asked walking behind the older looking man.

_"What about the Amarok?" _She heard in her mind.

"Oh it's not going anywhere, this'll only take a little while. Besides, Amarok only come out at night so it'll help kill some time." She told the sword at her hip.

Qrow didn't bother replying know she'd follow him regardless, also he'd long since grown use to the way she'd talk to her sword. He'd first met her while he was still attending Beacon, Ozpin had gotten her to take his team out on their first mission. They'd ended up taking on stumbling upon an entire nest of giant spider grimm, she took out the queen and over three quarters of the monsters while his team fought the rest. It wasn't until several decades later that he'd learned the truth about her from Ozpin, you know you're weird when being an immortal undead isn't the weirdest thing about you.

"The kid opened up a fissure in the ground about three clicks from here, try and keep up." Qrow told her before jumping into the air and shifting into bird form and taking off. Ashe followed below him on foot, still she didn't have any trouble keeping pace. She wasn't quite as fast as Ruby while using her semblance but she was still leagues above what most huntsmen were capable of.

Within minutes they arrived in a clearing that looked like it had been the site of a fight, a large fissure was opened up off to one side. Walking over to it Ashe looked down before turning to Qrow who had now shifted back. "It looks like it filled itself in." She told him as he looked down into it as well. Reaching into her coat she withdrew a grenade, Ashe didn't use many modern day weapons but she loved her some explosives. "Wanna blow a hole?"

Qrow shrugged. "Bombs away." He replied earning a wide smile from the redhead.

Pulling the pin she tossed it in and the pair stepped back, seconds later a large amounts of dirt and rock exploded out of the fissure. This time when the looked down there was a large hole that lead down into pitch blackness. "Let's go." She elbowed his shoulder before jumping soon followed by the huntsmen. Once they were in Ashe pulled a torch from her trust bottomless box and lit it up illuminating what they could now see was a tunnel.

"According to the kid this tunnel goes on for a really long time, how long will that torch last?" He asked.

Ashe thought for a few seconds before shrugging. "Not sure, I've had it for a long time and it hasn't burned out so, long enough I guess."

Qrow sighed again. "Let's get walking then."

**Patch**

Knight stood at the shore near Andre's home, in his hand he held a short sword. Littering the sand around him were more swords, each discarded after several swings, none felt quite right. Luckily Andre had a surplus of spare weapons he'd made in his spare time, each was a masterpiece worthy of the finest warrior but none fit him. "Lad, try this one." Andre called from a fold out chair nearby, next to him was a cooler with several bottles of an alcohol he called beer sitting on top. He tossed the knight a mace, it was covered in engravings, it's handle was wrapped in extremely high quality leather.

Catching the weapon the knight dropped the sword in his other hand, turning to the water once more he swung the weapon nearly a dozen times. Looking the mace over once more, shaking his head he dropped it. Andre laughed from his chair nearby before downing the remaining half of the bottle in his hand. "You always were a picky bastard when it came to your arms."

Shrugging, Knight leaned down and began gathering the many weapons the laid about. Andre stood once he got them all and lead him back to his workshop behind his home. He gestured towards a half empty barrel and the knight dumped all the weapons into it. "Honestly I still don't understand why you won't just use the sword at yur hip. You used it for years, even killed Gwyn with it." Andre spoke looking to the knight who only shook his head. "It wouldn't have anythin to do with what you and that fellow with the large hat did to it, would it?" Knight made no response.

Knight turned to exit the workshop but paused when noticed something in the corner, walking over he reached down and grabbed an old and worn looking blade. Nic's, chips and scratches littered the length of the dust cover weapon, several spots of rust could also be seen on it. The grey leather grip was frayed and appeared to have been chewed on by something, likely a rat or mouse. Tightening his grip on the sorry excuse for a blade he stepped right outside the workshop and raised the blade, without any warning he broke into a flurry of slashes and thrusts. He parried imaginary enemies and cut them down with ruthless precision that could only come from a veteran warrior.

He did this nearly fifteen minutes before stopping and looking over the weapon once more and turning back to the workshop where Andre stood leaning against the door. Holding out the weapon the knight nodded. "Very well, I'll reinforce it. Oddly fitting that you'd chose a thrown away piece of scrap metal I made while piss drunk and blindfolded." The old smith took the weapon and returned to the workshop.

**With Qrow**

Qrow frowned as he walked down the longest hallway he'd ever seen, Ashe walked just ahead of him holding the torch. They'd been walking for nearly an hour and the woman had been either chatting with her sword the entire way or humming to herself. Honestly it actually reminded him a bit of Ruby, he'd caught her talking to her scythe any number of times, she treated it like it was her child. Tai had mentioned he'd had to take it out of her arms while she slept several times. It never ceased to amaze him how chipper the woman always was.

Most people he met just got angrier and more pessimistic as they got older, but if Ozpin was telling the truth this woman was even older than he was. How she maintained such a sunny attitude all the time was a mystery to him. Maybe it was because she'd already seen everything the world throw at her and knew it couldn't surprise or break her, maybe it was simply because she'd lost her mind. He highly doubted he'd ever really find out. "I think we're here." Ashe chirped getting his attention.

Looking up Qrow saw the open wooden doors, they were thick and heavy looking. The scuffs on the floor looked fresh as well showing that it had recently been opened. "What's inside?" Qrow asked as he walked through along side the woman.

Stepping into the small bare room on the other side of the doors Qrow looked around before sighing to himself. "I guess the kid was telling Oz the truth after all, waste of time." He grumbled reaching for his flask.

"No." Ashe spoke, her voice slightly deeper than normal as she looked around the empty room. Taking in several deep breaths she frown deeply. "This room reeks of stale magical energy, ridiculously old yet potent." She said focusing on one of the corners in the room where a root stuck out of a wall and a noticeable impression could be seen in the floor. Leaning down she placed her hand on the impression and took another deep breath of the air around it. "What do you think Mid, three, four cycles?" She asked her sword as Qrow watched her. "You can't be serious?" Without warning Ashe stood and walked to the door. "Qrow come out here." She told him.

Qrow did as she said and she pulled the doors closed, etched into the front of the door were a script he'd never seen before. "What language is that?" He asked the woman as she traced the markings with her fingers.

"Lordranian, very very old Lordranian. The type used during the time of the gods." She explained causing Qrow's eyes to widen a bit.

"You think the brother gods left something here?" Qrow asked getting a snort in response.

"The gods before those gods." She told him as she stood back up. "It's a warning to stay out and leave the former inhabitant of this room in peace, though I highly doubt that Beacon student was able to read it."

"Does it say what was in there?" Qrow asked though he could probably guess the answer.

"No, just that they wanted to be left alone." Ashe answered before turning to face Qrow. "Ozpin needs to know about this."

That surprised Qrow to hear, he had already planned on letting Ozpin know everything but to hear it from her. Ashe had done a very good job at remaining a neutral party in the war, more than happy to just travel Remnant killing grimm and hunting down anything she consider a part of the 'darkness', how Salem didn't qualify he didn't know. So for her to suggest going to Ozpin for anything, it could only mean she wasn't confident in her chances of defeating it on her own.

"Turn into a bird." She told him regaining his attention.

"Huh, why?" His eyebrow raised once again.

"Just do it." She said impatiently. With another sigh Qrow shifted into his bird form, before he could react she grabbed him and shoved him in her coat. "You're to slow, so stay in there." She told him before taking off in a full sprint down the nearly pitch black hallway, Qrow squawked and struggled the entire way. At her top speed they made it back to the large hole they entered through in just under ten minutes. Jumping up and off the walls several times until they were back up on the surface. Pulling Qrow out of her coat she laughed as he shifted back to human looking disheveled and livid. "See, that wasn't so bad."

The drunken huntsmen growled. "Never do that again." Venom dripped from his words though Ashe didn't seem to care.

"Hurry up and call Ozpin, we're gonna need a ride back to Beacon for this, and I want to have a word with this student." She said waving him off.

**Beacon**

"I just can't get over how fuckin awesome this is." Dove said gushing over the new weapon in his hands just as he had ever since getting it the day before.

"I know, we all know, you haven't shut up about it all day." Russel responded as he read through a textbook. Everyone assumed that the four boys were just a bunch of meat heads, and while to a point that was true, you didn't make it into beacon without knowing your shit. Sure they dumped a lot of their work on Arc when he was the teams lackey but that was out of laziness, not because they couldn't do it themselves. "We've got Goodwitch next right?" He asked without looking up from his book.

"Yeah, we're gonna be doing team building shit today." Cardin responded reading through his own textbook, he'd have preferred to be looking over the book Knight gave him but he hadn't had a chance to get it back from Port yet. He was still pissed at the green haired teacher for making him wait instead of just giving it to him

"Mr. Winchester!" Speak of the devil and he shall appeared. Looking up the four boys looked up to see Oobleck speeding towards them, the familiar book in his hands. "I've been looking for you young man, I was hoping to ask you about this book here. After seeing how upset you got over it I became curious, to be honest I was expecting some kind of magazine to be hidden inside it. Imagine my surprise when I found such an old book written in a language I couldn't recognize, being fluent in twelve languages and familiar with many more that is very interesting. I would've guessed it was some sort of gibberish or some made up language, but with the age of the book and complexity of both the characters and sentence structure I dismissed that theory. I must know young man, where did you come across a book such as this?" The historian said all this in a single breath and fast enough that the four boys took a moment to process.

"An immortal Zombie knight that can shoot fire from his hands gave it to him." Dove answered in a deadpan voice as he continued to inspect his weapon. Everyone else just stared at him, the other three boys looking wide eyed.

Cardin was the first to recover. "It's a family heirloom, I found it in my families library." He told the green haired man.

"Ah I see, well if you ever desire some assistance in deciphering it feel free to drop by my office. Also I was instructed to send you and your team to the headmasters office when I next saw you. Good day boys." Then in a blur the man was headed away from them.

"Alright, who fucked up?" Cardin asked the other three boys who all shrugged. "Whatever, let's go get this over with."

Together the four began walking towards the tower that over looked the campus, as they walked Cardin began flipping through the page of the book he finally got back. Oobleck was a hard ass of a teacher, not quite as bad as Goodwitch but still harsh, even still He knew the man was incredibly intelligent. So to hear that he wasn't even able to identify the script the book was written in let alone translate, it didn't exactly boost his confidence in being able to do it himself. By the time he looked up he found that they were already in the elevator on their way up.

"Okay, so whatever one of you did just apologize and let them know it won't happen again. I'll throw in that I'll be keeping an eye on you blah blah blah. If we're lucky we'll get out of this with detention." Cardin said closing the book and getting nods from the other three boys. Once the reached the top and the doors opened they found not only Ozpin but Goodwitch and two other adults waiting on them, hunters if their weapons were anything to go by. "Okay, this may end worse than detention." He whispered back to the three others over his shoulder.

Stepping into the large office the four boys lined up before the headmasters desk. "Mr. Winchester, allow me to introduce you to Qrow Branwen." He gestured to the other man in the room.

"Dude, that's the death scythe." Russel whispered slightly to loudly the Sky who placed his face in his hand and shook his head.

"I see you've heard of him." Ozpin nodded while Qrow snorted with a grin on his face. "And next to him is Ashe Midir, another veteran huntress." He gestured to the woman who giggled before swatting at one of the blades at her hip. "After your disappearance recently I decided to ask Qrow here to look into the tunnel you claimed to have fallen into. And don't worry, they found it." Cardin's heart sank at hearing that, did they know about Knight? "They entered and followed the tunnel to it's end where they found the room you mentioned, and indeed it was empty." He explained, Cardin calmed down a bit at hearing that.

"But I don't think it was empty when you found it." The huntress next to Qrow stepped up to the largest of the four boy. Looking him up and down her eyes locked onto his hand, or more specifically the book in it. Before he could react she grabbed it and stepped away.

"Hey! Give that back you crazy bi-" He was cut off by the sound of Goodwitch's crop slapping Ozpin's desk.

"The Four Knights of Gwyn." She read aloud, once again his blood ran cold. "Written in old Lordranian no less, just like the message on the door. I highly doubt you simply stumbled on a book that is older that the discovery of dust itself. So boy, where'd you get this?" She asked the now sweating teen. "What was on the other side of the door kid?" She asked staring the boy in the eyes.

Cardin stood silently for nearly a minute. "What does it matter, it has nothing to do with this school or anyone in it." He spoke as he did his best to maintain the look of confidence he was currently wearing.

"Mr. Winchester, we have reason to believe that whatever was on the other side of that door is extremely dangerous." Ozpin explained to the teen. "It is our duty as hunters and as teachers to look into anything that could prove to be a threat to our students of the people of Vale."

Cardin clenched his fists for a moment before letting out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "I found a guy."

"A guy?" Qrow asked.

"Yeah, I thought he was a corpse at first. He'd clearly been in that room for a long time, a root had grown around him and everything." He explained before looking to his team who only shrugged. "When he moved I may have fainted, next thing I know he's carrying me over his shoulder to the entrance. He could've done any number of things to me while I was asleep, but instead he helped me. I went back on Friday to thank him, while I was talking to him we were attacked by grimm. I watched him kill an Amarok by himself with his bare hands." He explained, Ashe cursed under breath before swatting the blade at her hip again. Qrow whistled at the feat. "After that my team showed up and we fought with him against horde of grimm. When we finally killed the last of the grimm, he gave us some rings and that book."

"He gave you rings?" Ozpin asked getting a nod from the four.

Cardin pulled off his glove to reveal the ring on his finger, Ashe's eyes widen at the sight of the ring. "Impossible." She said walking over a grabbing his hand and looking more closely at the ring. "The ring of the wolf, worn by Artorias the Abyss Walker. The only one could have had this was the one who slew him." She then looked to the other three teens. "He said rings, plural." At that they each revealed their own rings each causing her eyes to widen even further, one of the swords at her hip began giving off an almost unnoticeable stream of black smoke. "But he kindled the flame! He would have been destroyed by the fire along with all of his possessions!" She shouted at the sword on her hip.

"Ashe, do you know who they met?" Qrow asked placing a hand on her shoulder only to pull back after feeling the heat her body was giving off.

"It could only be one person, the Chosen Undead who killed Gwyn the Lord of Cinder." The three other adults in the office stared at the woman with surprise, none of them had ever seen her act in such a way.

"Ashe, who exactly is this person?" Qrow asked trying to calm the woman.

"THE Chosen Undead, the one who is responsible for slaying the four original gods. Nito the first of the dead, the Witch of Izalith and her daughters of chaos, Gwyn the Lord of Sunlight and even Manus the Father of the Abyss! The original human and progenitor of darkness!" She said all this with near hysterics in her voice. Closing her eyes she took a deep breath, after several seconds she released it and turned to the four boys. "Where is he?" She demanded.

"We don't kno-" Cardin felt something slam into his stomach sending him flying back into one of the elevator doors. Before he could even try to react a blade pierced the metal next to his head, the woman held the blade she'd been talking to near his throat.

"ASHE!" Ozpin shouted in a rare moment of anger. "You will NOT threaten one of my students lives to get information, especially not while you are a guest on my schools ground!" He said standing to his feet with cane in hand, Glynda already hand her crop pointed at the woman ready to fling her across the room if needed.

"Where. Is. He." She growled once more seemingly ignoring the veteran huntsmen with their weapons raised at her.

"Andre's." Qrow spoke up getting her attention. Looking over to the drunken huntsmen who was now standing next to one of the terrified looking teens. He was looking over a weapon on the boys back. "This is definitely Andre's work and is freshly smithed, I'd be willing to bet he's there." Qrow explained.

Before anyone else could react the woman removed her blade from the door and had already stepped into an undamaged one leaving a clearly shaken Cardin laying with his back still against the stabbed elevator door. Before the others could ask what he was doing he pulled out his scroll and dialed a number. "Mr. Winchester, who are you calling? Ozpin asked narrowing his eyes.

"Andre, someones coming for Knight, warn him!" He shouted just before his scroll flew out of his hand and to Goodwitch who promptly ended the call.

Ozpin let out an exhausted sounding sigh. "Dear gods, the collateral." He said massaging his temples. "Qrow." He looked to the man who nodded.

"Got it." He said moving towards another elevator.

"Wait, we're going to!" Cardin shouted now regaining his composure.

**Patch**

Knight stood unmoving at the center of the small clearing in the forest near Andre's house. It had been an hour and a half since the old smith had let him know that someone was on their way to confront him. Whether they were planning on attacking him or simply speaking with him he didn't know but decided to move to a more remote area and wait.

His new sword was slung on his back along side his shield while his original sword remained at his hip, his armor and shield had gotten a long over due cleaning and touch up from Andre. Nothing more than replacing some rotted leather and cloth, the metal was so reinforced that it was still in great condition. Regardless the gear felt much better now and he was confident he could move more freely after the repairs.

He heard a familiar roaring overhead as one of the metal crafts that flew above the city he'd visited soared over him towards Andre's home, that was probably the one coming for him.

He remained motionless for another fifteen minutes until he heard footsteps, the unmistakable stench of ash reached his nostrils. Turning to face this newcomer he noted it was definitely a woman based off her build, he could also tell without the slightest doubt in his mind that she was undead. The pair stared at one another for nearly a minute. "The chosen undead, said to have traveled on the wings of a great bird from the undead asylum to Anor Londo where you slew Gwyn." She said placing her hand on the hilt of one of her blade. "Somehow I expected someone taller."

Knight almost laughed at hearing this, he supposed it was to be expected though. All stories are warped by time, he didn't ride on any great bird, he was grabbed and taken against his will. Then of course was how she left out everything he went through to actually get to Anor Londo let alone make it through that damned city. Reaching up he placed his hand on the handle of his sword while also allowing a spark to form in his palm. He could tell whoever this woman was she would be no push over.

Drawing his blade he watched as she did the same with her black and frayed looking blade.

**Unknown Location**

Sitting alone on a great stone throne surrounded by pitch darkness was a young looking man. He didn't appear to be any older than fifteen, chin length blue hair hung down in front of his face. His body was covered by a set of black robes with silver trimmings that covered his arms and shoulders. His eyes were hidden behind a black blind fold that also had silver trimmings. Leaning against the throne was a silver staff with a lightly glowing crystal embedded at the top.

The thing that stood out the most about him however was the crown atop his head over the hood that covered his hair, it almost visibly radiated power. It looked to be made of a combination of old iron, ivory and what could be mistaken as coral.

His head hung limply to the side as though he were sleeping, his face completely blank of any expression. Then for the first time in countless centuries he was disturbed, a small amount of dust fell from the ceiling of the ancient stone chamber, then several seconds later more fell. His head moved less than an inch, barely a twitch as the sound of metal striking stone could be heard.

Then after millennia of nothing but cold and peaceful darkness, a tiny beam of light entered into his throne room.

"Incredible!" A voice shouted as a hole was made in the ceiling, every few seconds it grew larger and larger as someone chipped away at the stone. Within minutes the hole was large enough for someone to enter through. "Such primitive architecture yet it was so resistant to not only the elements and natural erosion, but also modern mining equipment." The same voice spoke again as they lowered themselves down into the dark room.

"Be careful down there sir, there could be grimm." Another voice called before they to jumped through the hole though they decided to forgo the ropes.

"By the gods." The first man, an older man wearing a long coat and thick glasses. He ran over to the boy on the throne. "Impossible, this chamber has been closed for centuries at least and yet he's perfectly preserved, as if he died yesterday!" The man exclaimed excitedly as he looked over the crown wearing person. "Stephens come look at this, his clothes and that crown. I think we've stumbled upon far more than a simple tomb my boy, this is clearly the crypt of someone of great importance, maybe a king of some kind."

The second man hummed to himself in response before looking to the staff leaning against the throne or more specifically the crystal at the top. He wore leather armor along his arms and legs and had a long two handed sword slung across his back. "Is that dust?" He asked stepping over to the staff. He reached out for it.

"Enough." A light whispered caused the pair to freeze in place. "You've entered the kings chambers without permission." The boy spoke turning to face the pair, the older of the two fell on his rear and crawled backwards while the other man drew his sword. "And now you've drawn a weapon, the punishment for such disrespect." He spoke softly as he slowly stood from his throne and grabbed the staff. "Can only be death." As he said this he brought the staff up and then back down on the stone ground quickly creating a dark fog that filled the area.

The older of the two began screaming as the fog burned away his skin with dark magic, the second man however looked to be much more resistant. He lunged at the younger looking of the two with sword raised and quickly brought it down. Raising his staff to guard he covered it with dark energy just as the blade made contact, the blade could be heard cracking upon the impact. Raising his free hand the boy touched the mans chest instantly feeling an energy attempting to repel him. Pushing the man with the sword backwards he looked over his hand with his still covered eyes. "How interesting, so the soul has changed." He muttered to himself. "Show me more."

**So I was trying to figure out who could be a good villain for a Dark Souls protagonist, then it hit me like a Millwood great arrow, another Drak Souls Protagonist! Ashe will likely be a more neutral party but I still haven't decided. Leave me a review and let me know what you all think. Until next time.**


	3. Chapter 3

**I did say updates for this would be rare. And to those who asked, yes those are the three protags from the first three games. The Chosen Undead, The Monarch, and The Ashen One. Let's do this.**

Ashe panted heavily as held her blade with the knight about a dozen meters away, compared to her he was slow, almost painfully so. That however didn't change the fact that his defense with that shield and his armor was rock solid. It didn't matter how hard she hit him, he never budged an inch. Then he would counter attack with enough power to make a giant jealous. She'd parried one such strike and her arm was still numb from bracing against it, then of course were his pyromancies. The knight was almost as skilled with the fire as he was with his blade.

The area around them was proof enough of that, trees that were't cut down or snapped in half had been reduced to smoldering wood. Her miracles had worked greatly in her favor, healing her wounds and keeping him moving with lightning but it was clear he was use to lightning wielding enemies. That was fine though, she was use to fighting enemies who used fire.

Taking a deep breath Ashe stood straight and held her blade up in front of her face, closing her eyes she whispered a quick chant before sweeping her blade to the side causing the already sparking bolts of electricity to flash and grow in intensity. "Midir." She said placing her hand on the hilt of her second sheathed blade.

_"I'm ready." _The voice in her head spoke, neither however noticed the knight perk up when he spoke.

The knight could instinctively tell the battle was about to pick up once more and raised his shield ready to defend. "Come." Was the first thing he'd said since the battle had begun.

Taking off in a blur of movement Ashe was in front of him, with as much force as she could muster the ashen warrior slammed the butt of her blades handle into the face of the knights shield, before he could counter however she placed her palm of her free hand against the face of the shield as well. "And so even the dragons bowed in submission before the Wrath of the Gods." Her prayer was soon followed by a blinding flash of light.

The knight was thrown off his feet and sent flying backwards and into a thin tree, it didn't stand a chance as his armored body turned it to splinters upon impact. As he continued to slide backward he stabbed his blade into the ground slowing to a halt. Looking up his eyes widen to find the woman already upon him, she drew the old frayed looking blade from her hip with a reverse grip and swung it upwards at him, a beam of dark energy slammed into his chest. The pain was immense but nothing he hadn't felt before, it still managed to knock him onto his back.

Dropping her first blade she raised the frayed one into the air above and brought the point down to impale him, just as the blade was about to pierce his chest he slammed the edge of his shield into the side of the blade sending it off course and through his sword arms shoulder pinning him to the ground. Then in his shield hand a fire sparked brightly which he brought down onto the ground, now it was the ashen swordswomens turn to be surprised as several pillars of flame exploded from the ground beneath and around her.

She was forced to jump backwards and away from the still pinned knight to avoid being engulfed by the inferno, but even then was caught in the side by a pillar near the edge of the effective range of the attack, she ignored the burns it caused. "MIDIR!" She shouted looking to where she left her weapon and companion. She grit her teeth as she watched the knight remove the blade from his shoulder and stand to his feet.

The knight took the blade by it's handle and examined it before looking to the now completely unarmed warrior. To her surprise he tossed the weapon threw the air back to her, she caught the blade and immediately dropped back into her stance. Raising his shield once more the knight readied himself again. "Come."

**Nearby**

Team CRDL all sprinted down the path towards the old smiths house, they'd landed on the island only minutes after the woman and Qrow but neither were anywhere to be seen when they left the ship. It had only been about fifteen minutes since they began and they could already see the familiar cove in the distance. "We're almost there!" Cardin shouted to the other boys running with him.

After another minute they emerged and went straight the old smiths front door. "Over here lads." They heard from the forest line. Looking they all saw the familiar old man standing with his arms crossed.

"Andre, where's Knight?" Cardin asked coming to a stop in front of the man, bending over he tried to catch his breath.

Before the smith could respond a loud blast followed by cracking could be heard nearby. "I that direction, they've already been at it for a few minutes now." Andre explained. "After yur call I let the lad know someone was comin for 'em, if I'd known it was Ashe comin I'd ave told him to take further from my house." The old man chuckled.

"That bitch is crazy, we gotta help him." Cardin said drawing his weapon.

"Don't be daft boy, this fight is far beyond you lads. This isn't just a fight between Undead, but between legends, yur better off waitin here with me." He told the four.

"She's a zombie to?" Dove asked.

"Aye, but she prefers Undead." The smith nodded.

"So their both immortal badasses, whose stronger?" Russel asked next.

The old smith hummed to himself in thought for several seconds. "I can't say, but it shouldn't be much longer. Come on, but stay close, let's get a closer look."

**Back In The Fight**

Knight rolled his shoulder around, the pain was tolerable but the stiffness of it would slow him down a bit. It had been a long time since he'd fought an opponent of this caliber. She was fast, skilled and precise. She knew a wide variety miracles, even a few he'd never seen before such as a small but fast bow of lightning. Then there were her weapons, the first he'd recognized on sight, the Chaos Blade. A cursed and evil weapon he'd seen turn once noble warriors into the most despicable of betrayers.

The other blade on the other hand was unlike any he'd ever seen before, it was old and frayed weapon that looked to have seen an uncountable number of battles. Even more was the energy it gave off, dark and potent, and then there was the voice he'd heard. He wasn't sure but why he was certain it originated from the blade.

She rushed him once more but at the last moment delayed her attack by a fraction of a second, fortunately he hadn't yet dropped his guard. As she slashed the old blade upwards he angle his shield in such a way that her stance was thrown off by a few inches. His newly reinforced blade shot forward in a powerful thrust that caught the side of her neck causing blood to begin leaking out, he'd missed the artery by several millimeters.

Not wanting to give her any time to respond he swung at her only a moment later, this time he manage to land a blow on her forearm. The blade cut halfway through the limb completely splitting the bone. As she staggered backwards a few feet Knight buried his boot into her stomach sending her to the ground with a hard thud, then without hesitation he planted his blade into the womans stomach earning a screech of pain. Ripping the blade out he ignored the spray of blood the painted him as he raised his blade to finish the fight. "Strong." He said before bringing down the blade towards the womans throat to decapitate her.

_"Ashe move!"_ The same voice from before could be heard in the knights mind but he ignored it, it was already to late for the woman. Then to the knight surprise his foot slipped on some scorched grass throwing him off balance, before he could correct this a pair of feet rammed into his back sending him stumbling forward.

Spinning on his heels he manage to raise his shield just in time block an attack from a man with a large scythe, jumping back the man began firing some form of projectile at the knight which simply bounced off the heavily reinforced shield.

Knight stood ready to face this new enemy, reaching down with his sword hand he grabbed his estus flask and poured a portion of it through the gaps in his helmet. He could immediately feel his wounds mending themselves. Normally in a dual he would consider it dishonorable to use the flask, but the moment the man stepped in it ceased to be a dual and became just another fight to the death. "HEY!" Knight heard a familiar voice shout but never took his eyes off of his enemies.

A few moments later the four teens he'd given his rings to all moved to either side of him. "What the hell are you brats doing, get out of here." The man who'd kicked him shouted.

"Like hell, this was a one on one match. If you're gonna step in to help her then it's only fair we help Knight!" Cardin growled gripping his weapon tightly, Knight could tell the boy was very nervous based off of the shaking of his feet.

It made sense, he and his team were rookies, they were green and unblooded. Yet they now stood on a battlefield with combatants far beyond their hopes to challenge let alone defeat. The knight could tell the new man was a veteran by the way he held himself. He highly doubted the man could compare with either of the present undead but he was still leagues above these boys. Knight would bet he could defeat all four boys without any effort at all.

"This isn't a game, he was about to kill her!" The man shouted.

"And she attacked him in the first place! If it had been the other way around would you have stepped in to save Knight?" Cardin growled, the man didn't reply. "Exactly, she should've been ready to die the moment she pulled out her weapon and pointed it at him. One of the first things we were taught in combat school was that if you attack someone with the intent to kill then you are forfeiting your right to live."

There was a heavy silence group as everyone waited for the others to move. "The lad speaks the truth Qrow." An old and deep voice caught everyones attention. Andre walked out in between the two parties. "I'm calling it now, this fight is over. Now let's sheath our blades and drink as friends, there is no need for any further blood to be spilt today."

Nobody moved for several seconds, then knight relaxed a bit before lowering his blade before finally sheathing it. Reaching out he placed his hand on the largest teen shoulder and nodded at him. With clear hesitation he lowered his mace and signaled for his friends to do the same. Qrow was the last to do the same and turn to the woman who was forcing herself to sit up. "Chosen Undead." She spoke weakly. "That was... a good fight." She said pulling out a cloth talisman and whispering a prayer before a flash of light enveloped her, moments later she was back on her feet, her wounds mostly healed. Leaning over she picked up her frayed sword and sheathed it.

"Good, now we drink." Andre said turning to walk away.

**Elsewhere**

A blue haired young man wearing black robes and a crown like none had ever seen before sipped at the wine from the bottle in his hand. "Hm, it's no Catirina brew, but still good." He shrugged before tossing the bottle over his shoulder and looking around the large tent. There were several objects he'd never seen before as well as a wealth of books and maps, unfortunately they were all written in a language he'd never seen before. Walking over to his staff he grabbed it and walked to the flap of the tent and stepped out.

The ground was sand as far as the eye could see and the sun bore down on the area, if it weren't for the fact that undead were largely immune to all weather conditions he would likely be sweating profusely in his all black attire. It was how an undead could walk through a blizzard wearing nothing but a pair of knickers and not so much as shiver.

The camp he was in had seemingly been a excavation site, his tomb and throne room being the focus. All around laid the corpses of all present, their souls were all as lacking as the challenge they posed, all with the exception of two. One of the two men he first encountered in his throne room and second that came running in after sounds of combat were heard outside the tomb. The pair were skilled and took a considerable amount amount of effort when compared to all the others, but when their souls joined his being after death it was like a rush of euphoria the like of which he hadn't felt since slaying the daughters of the Abyss.

They were also different from any enemy he'd ever faced, both wielded unique weapons he'd never seen before. Then there was the way they used their souls to protect themselves from harm, similar to creating a barrier around ones self but it was passively there and required to spells to be cast. There was also the way their souls lit up when they used unique abilities.

Finally there was the substance used to power the many object around the camp he didn't recognize, a mineral of some sort that held power over the elements. He'd found a handful so far, red, yellow, green, but he'd love to sit down and examine more in greater detail later. At the moment however his largest interest was the large metal dragon flying in his direction, it was loud and oddly it's wings weren't flapping. The dragon soared over his head and for a moment he thought it would simply pass him by only for it to quickly slow itself and set down just outside the camp.

The Monarch casually walked to the edge of the camp and to his slight surprise, over a dozen men began filing out of an opening in the dragons belly. All wore matching uniforms with the exception of the pair leading them. His lips turned up into a wide smile as he stared at the pair, his eyes may have been covered by his black blindfold but with his spirit sight he could arguably see better than the average person, and with this sight he could see these two had souls just like the pair he killed earlier.

"Young man, are you injured? What happened here." One of asked running over the moment they saw him, a woman, likely thinking he was the soul survivor of some bloody massacre, scared and traumatized like a normal teenage boy would be. Well she was partially correct at least.

"If you wish to speak with the king, you must kneel." He spoke looking up at the woman who stood nearly a foot taller than him.

"What?" She asked confused.

"Listen punk, tell us where the other half of our team is and we'll get you out of here saf-" The second one was cut off.

"KNEEL!" The Monarch shouted with far more authority than should have been possible for a boy of his apparent age. The crown on his head gave a dull glow for a few moments.

To the shock of the pair that had been leading, every uniformed man, each holding one of the odd metal weapons that some of the excavators had that fire those small metal projectiles at incredible speeds, all dropped to one knee. "What the, Sargent what the hell are you doing?!" The male of the pair asked.

"How interesting, so the crown has no power over those with souls such as yourself. That warrants further... experimentation." The Monarch said with clear interest. "Kill the man." He ordered.

"What have you done to them you bas-" He was cut off once again, this time however it was by the barking of over a dozen of those weapons. The aura shield around him managed to protect him from a few dozen of the projectiles but hundreds were pelting him all at once, he never stood a chance.

"AZURE!" The woman screamed.

The Monarch placed a hand on her shoulder. "Do not mourn him girl, you will be with him soon." He raised his staff which began glowing with black and white energy. He then slammed his fist that was still wrapped around his staff into her face causing a large burst of black and white energy that engulf her earning a scream of agony. When the debris cleared the woman laid on the ground twitching with all the skin on her face completely scorched away. The Monarch looked down on her. "Sargent, may I see your weapon?" He asked the man the male of the pair had referred to.

"Of course my lord." The man ran over to him and bow while holding the weapon out to him, a dull glow could just barely be seen in the man eyes.

The Monarch took the weapon a pointed the end that spat out the bits of metal at the scorched woman's face. "And I just point and pull this tiny metal lever here correct?" He asked the still kneeling man.

"Yes my lord, but please be careful of the recoil." The man nodded his head.

Pulling the trigger the Monarch staggered back a little and the weapon kicked up into the air firing the bit of metal into the sky. When the weapon was empty and simply began making clicking sound the Monarch released the trigger and began laughing loudly. "Marvelous! Such an interesting weapon." He then looked down to the woman, she was indeed dead if the whole in her skull was anything to go by. "Thank you Sargent, now if you could join me within your mount, I have a few questions about this modern world of yours."

"It would be an honor my lord, do you have any destinations in mind?" He asked still on his knees.

The Monarch stopped and thought to himself for a few moments. "Take me to the nearest large settlement." He instructed getting a nod in response before the man began shouting orders at the other men. "My new kingdom has to start somewhere." He chuckled to himself as he walked towards the metal dragon.

**Beacon**

"That's the jist of what's happening in this cycle Mr. Knight." Ozpin explained to the armored man who stood at the center of the room. Glynda stood next to his desk while Qrow and Ashe were leaning against the wall near the elevators. Ashe was demanding that Qrow allow her to see pictures of his nieces. "Lady Ashe has chosen to remain neutral in our conflict, instead she has decided to dedicate her time to slaying grimm, even still she has agreed to give us assistance should the time ever come to put an end to all this once and for all. In return we have made sure the Kingdoms and governments around the world leave her alone and allow her to do as she pleases. I would like to make a similar agreement with you." The headmaster smiled at the knight.

"No." There was no hesitation in his answer.

Ozpin and Glynda were both taken aback by this. "I'm sorry, no? I don't understand." The headmaster tilted his head a bit. Without another word the knight turned away from the perplexed pair. "Mr. Knight, we're not done here yet." Ozpin stood.

"I am." Another short but clear response. These people wanted to use him to fight in their war, even if the dressed it up to sound like he was benefiting from it, it was still no different in his eyes then those two serpents. They tell you that the choice is yours when really there never was a choice, well he figured out a long time ago how to win these kinds of games, he simply wasn't going to play. Pressing the same button he'd seen Qrow press upon their arrival he entered the elevator as the doors opened. Pressing the next button he felt the machine begin to lower.

He was going to return to Andre's home and continue learning what he needed and then he'd decide what to do next, he would have no part in the affairs of this cycle. When the door opened he was greeted by four familiar faces. "Hey big guy, what happened up there?" Cardin asked with crossed arms.

Knight only shook his head in response as he continued walking towards the exit, the four boys followed behind him as he walked. "Well seeing as you're walking out unchained I'd say it went pretty well." Russel laughed. "But more importantly, we got off with only a three day detention for leaving school ground without permission."

"We also didn't lose our heads to the Death Scythe or that crazy bitch who talks to her sword, that alone is enough to leave me happy." Dove grumbled.

"You worry way to much man, you saw what Knight did to that whole area of the forest. The old man wouldn't have stood a chance against him." Cardin said with a strange sense of pride in his voice.

"He might be able to beat me, but I sure as hell could still whip your sorry asses." Said huntsmen spoke up from behind them causing the four boys to go stiff, Knight however only turned and looked at the huntsmen. Walking up to the undead but leaving a few feet of space between them Qrow nodded his head. "Listen I just wanted to say sorry for Ashe, she's very touchy about things from yall's time. Now that you've met though, I doubt she'll mess with you any further. Anyway, that's all I wanted to say." He said turning away from the knight and beginning to walk away.

Knight was still for only a moment before he continued walking. "Are you going back to Andre's?" Cardin asked the knight.

The knight raised his arm with a fist held up as a response and kept walking.

**One Month Later**

Knight brought his ax down on the log splitting it easily down the middle, sticking the ax into the stump he was chopping on he bent down and picked up two large armfuls of the freshly chopped wood. He quickly carried it over to a large stack of wood that sat against the side of the shed he now lived in. It was small, originally built a long time ago by Andre to store firewood. After electric heating became a thing however it fell into disuse. While the smith was an undead and didn't really worry about the elements that didn't mean he enjoyed the biting cold of winter.

Nearly everything but the concrete foundation had to be torn down and replaced, it had only taken two days to complete, they even added a small fireplace. The end product was a wooden shack large enough to hold a single bed, the fireplace and a small table and a chest against the wall. It had no electricity, running water or any other modern amenities, and was smaller than some peoples closets. Regardless, it was more than enough for the knight.

Andre had told him he could have it for a few weeks for free, then he'd need to either start paying to live their or would need to give a reason he should keep him around. For as long as he could remember he'd used souls to barter for anything he needed, it felt extremely odd to use money for a change. It turned out that he was actually very wealthy. He always had a had of picking up shiny things and stuffing them away into his box just to be forgotten about.

He ended up having a kings fortune worth of silver, gold, jewels and other treasures he'd picked up in Anor Londo and across Lordan. Enough wealth to make even a dragon envious, that didn't even take into account the books, maps, documents and other pieces of information that historians would apparently pay exceptionally well for.

Knight didn't actually care about money, he had no use for any of it. Andre had convince him to create something called a 'bank account', he then sold off all that treasure and most of the books and papers. By the time it was all sold off Knight was 'a very very rich man' though if he were to guess all that money was probably just gonna sit in the bank account completely untouched, with the exception of the money Andre took out every month, for the rest of time.

Walking over to the door he pushed it open and reached inside grabbing a fishing rod and his new sword which he strapped to his unarmored back. He was wearing a pair of simple brown pants and a long brown leather jacket, his face was wrapped up in a cloth hiding his entire face except his eyes. His shield was leaned up against the chest against the wall that held all of his armor and his old sword, he didn't need any of it anymore.

He had no desire to fight anyone anymore, the only reason he carried his new sword was to deal with the occasional grimm he'd run into on the island. Even then he didn't want to fight the beasts but according to Andre they existed everywhere across the world, the only places he wouldn't have to deal with them were the big cities and he living somewhere like that was even worse then dealing with the odd beast.

Taking the rod he was about to turn and begin walking along the shore line until he reached his preferred fishing spot, a new hobby he found he enjoyed quite a bit. "Hey Bro!" He heard the voice he'd grown very use to over the past month. "Going fishing again?" Cardin asked as he and his team approached his shack.

The four had begun regularly been coming by his shack much to his confusion, he lived a very boring life and did so by choice. Sure he didn't mind the camaraderie but the four all seemed to look at him with some kind of admiration, they even began referring to him as 'bro' which he assumed was short for brother, it was perplexing to say the least. They'd drop by and spar on the shore near his and Andre's homes, when he'd go out fishing and they were around they'd tag along and do some training in the area while he fished. On a few rare occasions they'd convinced him to spar with them he'd easily beaten them into the ground all without ever using his sword, shield, armor or any offensive fire attacks. The only thing he'd ever used against them were his fists and the Iron Flesh to defend against any rounds he may have failed to dodge.

He didn't really consider it fighting seeing as it was only sparring and the four always enjoyed it despite the fact that none of them had ever landed a solid hit on him before, still he noticed improvement in the forms and teamwork every time they sparred. "Mind if we tag along? I was thinking about having the boys practice some tracking and survival skills while we were out in the forest." Knight just nodded and began walking, the four teens following behind. After about twenty minutes the group reached a shore with a number of large rocks sticking out of the water, waves gently slapping against them. "Alright, Me and Dove will focus on setting up a small shelter and get a fire going. Russel and Sky, you guys go search the area for possible food and keep and eye out for any kind of grimm activities, tracks, claw marks anything. If you run into any actual grimm then high tail your asses back here and we'll deal with them together."

"And if it gets out of hand we got Knight to help us out." Russel nodded.

"Yeah but he's fishing so unless we're seriously fucked let's not bug him." Cardin instructed his team. "Alright now get to work, I want you guys back here in half an hour."

Knight listened to the four as he climbed up on one of the rocks, the top was completely flat after he'd used his sword to cut it off leaving him with the perfect spot to sit. They were right, if he figured they got in over their heads he'd step in and wipe out the grimm for them but like their leader had said they usually tried to not disturb him while he fished.

Reaching into his coat he pulled out a small bag holding dirt and worms, his bait. In only a couple minutes he had one on the hook and was enjoying the repetitive sounds of water hit the rock he sat on while his bobber floated gently in the water. He sat there for several minutes without a nibble, he didn't care, all that matter was the peace he was feeling.

"This way guys!" A feminine voice caught the knights attention as a red blur shot out of the forest and onto the shore. It a girl with black and red hair wearing a revealing outfit, in her hand was a large black duck, oddly enough she looked a bit familiar. Knight glanced over to Cardin who was staring at the girl.

"We're coming!" Another female voice shouted sounding irritated. Out of the forest walked three more girls, each carrying something and wore just as revealing outfits. One of the three he recognized on sight, the blonde he'd slammed into the ground a while back. It only took a few moments for one of the girls, the one with long black hair, to notice his and the other boys presence. Tapping the blondes shoulder she gestured to them.

"What?! Hell no!" The blonde girl shouted dropping the box she'd been carrying. "Winchester, what are you doing at our swimming spot?!" She demanded with now shining hair.

Cardin dropped what he was doing and stood up crossing his arms, Dove stood beside him. "Your spot? We were here first, we're doing survival training!" He shouted back.

"Well find somewhere else, we're here to swim and we don't need a bunch of pervs oogling us all day." The blonde growled.

"No way, this is Knight's favorite fishing spot, you find somewhere else." Dove spoke this time.

"Who?" The first girl asked.

Cardin gestured to where Knight sat fishing, he'd already turned back to the water choosing to ignore them. "You remember my cousin, the one who nearly put a hole through your skull with his fist."

The four girls all looked to the fishing man with a nervous look, even the fiery blonde seemed to lose a bit of her bite at the memory. "Fine, whatever, just keep your eyes on what you're doing." She practically spat at him before grabbing her box and stomping towards the shore. "And keep your crazy cousin away from us!"

**Hours Later**

Knight reeled his line in for the last time, standing up on the rock he rolled his shoulders for a a quick stretch. Bending over he grabbed the hooked strings that laid next to him, each having a fish he'd caught on it. Looking to the shore he saw that the boys had a large fire going and they were all sitting around it laughing with one another. Nearby the four girls all looked to be packing up to leave, the sun was setting so that was probably smart.

Carrying his catch down the rocks towards the four boys he handed them over to Sky. "Hey, we got dinner!" The teen shouted happily to the other three.

"That's good to hear cuz I was getting peckish." A rough voice shouted from nearby as Andre followed by Ashe exited the forest and onto the shore.

"Grandpa Andre!" Ruby shouted bolting over and plowing into the giant old smith though even as she hit him he never budged. "How did you know we were out here?"

Andre placed his large hand on the young girls head. "Good to see ya lass, but I didn't. I'm here for Knight over there, Ashe wanted to speak with him."

"Ruby! Oh look at you, you're all grown up and beautiful!" Ashe shouted grabbing the girl and giving her a squeeze.

"Whose this lady?" Yang asked walking over only to yelp as she was yanked into the now three person hug.

"Yang, you grew into a knockout just like a said." She squeal squeezing the pair tighter.

"I'm sorry miss, but do we know you?" Ruby squeaked under the tightness of the hug.

Finally letting the two go Ashe looked them over once again. "The last time I saw you two you were both in diapers, Summer had just squeezed you out. Oh you both grew up to look just like your mothers." Ashe then looked to Yang. "And look at those things, damn girl, I don't know where you got those. Even Raven never had melons like those." She laughed.

"You knew our moms?" Ruby asked excitedly.

"I've known Qrow, Raven, Tai and Summer since they were in Beacon like you are. Sweety your mother would be so proud of you." Ashe gave a lighter hug this time to the girl.

"Do you know where she is, my mom?" Yang asked with some hope in her voice.

Ashe shook her head. "Sorry but I haven't seen Raven in... seven years I think? Was it seven years Midir?" She asked the blade at her hip. "Yeah seven years, and she's always on the move. I doubt even Qrow knows where she is exactly at any given time."

Knight walked over to the group and held up his left hand a small spark ignited. "Relax lad, I made her swear not to fight this time. Patch can't handle the forestation." Andre him.

"He's right, I've just got a few questions but they can wait, let's eat." She smiled widely.

After a few minutes the eight students and three undead found themselves sitting around the roaring fire watching the fish cook. Most were just talking among themselves. "So!" Ashe said loudly. "We're all sitting around a camp fire, whose got a good ghost story."

"You want us to tell stories with them, as if." Yang glared at the four boys. "Their a bunch of racist bullies."

"We're not exactly overly fond of a team of bimbo's and snobs either." Russel shot back.

"Enough." Knight spoke firmly sending the group into silence as he reached into his coat and pulled out his box and reached inside and slowly pulled out an evil looking double edged sword, both Andre and Ashe flinched slightly at the sight of it. "Story." He gestured to Andre who grunted and nodded.

"Aye, listen up brats, I've got a story for ya." He slowly took the dark metal of the blade into his hand, grimacing as he felt it in his palms. It simply felt off. "Let me tell you about the Darkwraiths, a true story and this sword is proof of it. I can feel the evil living in the steel." He said before stabbing it into the ground half way to the hilt.

"What's a Darkwraith?" Yang asked.

"To put it simply, they were once people, knights actually. Knight who served several kings faithfully, even after the kings deaths they continued to serve. Then came the Abyss, a darkness so evil just stepping in it is enough to corrupt a mans soul, just as it did those knights." Andre reached into his pocket and pulled out a bottle of alcohol. "They were strong will, but even the strongest need to eat. After the Abyss appeared their home was sealed off to prevent it's spread, so they turned to the people food."

"Cannibals?" Sky asked.

"If only." The old smith shook his head before taking a swig. "No, they never fed off the flesh of men. Instead they devoured their humanity, their souls." He looked over the children, they were all listening with interest though some looked skeptical. "The knight were trained in the use of an old evil technique known as Lifedrain, imagine someone grabbin and suck out bits of your aura and using it to empower themselves. Eatin your very essence." He took another drink. "Hundreds of people and only a handful of knights, it was a slaughter, and when they were done they'd grown strong off the souls of their victims but gaining power in such a way comes with a great cost. They ironically lost what made them human, they became rabid, no different from the grimm. Simply existin to sate a hunger that only grew the more they fed. Unlike the grimm however, the warriors maintained their skills." He gestured to the sword stuck in the ground. "They were stronger, faster and far more durable than a normal man. One was easily capable of bringing down an entire squadron of trained soldiers." He drained the last of his bottle. "Beings so evil even the tools were corrupted by their hands."

"That's ridiculous, you can't possibly believe in someone with the ability to steal souls." Weiss spoke with clear doubt.

Andre only chuckled before grabbing the swords handle and pulling it out before handing it handle first to the heiress. "Hold this blade and tell me you feel no evil."

Clearly hesitant the girl held out hand and grasped the handle, the moment she did however she felt something cold. A sensation of cold overpowered her hole being causing her to drop the weapons with a look of absolute horror on her face. She was from Atlas, people call her 'Ice Queen', she knew cold. The sensation was unlike anything she'd ever experienced before in her life. "Weiss?" Ruby caught her attention by grabbing her hand. "Are you okay?"

Weiss looked between her partner and the blade once more before sitting back down, this time a bit closer to both the fire and her team. "I'm fine, just shocked by some static."

Andre chuckled seeing through the lie with ease, grabbing the blade from the ground he handed it back to Knight who stuffed it back in his box with clear disdain even with his face hidden.

"My turn." Ashe held up her hand. "Let's see, scary story... Oh! So a long long time ago there was this city called Yharnam."

**Unknown Location**

Salem sat quietly on her terrace looking over the spawning pits where her grimm crawled out of. Grabbing a goblet filled with wine from a nearby table she took a sip. She smiled as she thought over all the progress that had been made recently. Cinder only gaining half of the maiden's power was a nuisance to be sure but less so when she imagined the absolutely chaos it had likely thrown Ozpin and his group into. Once they obtained the full power of the maiden it would be far easier to find and take the same power from the spring maiden. From there gaining the relic of Knowledge would be simple, with it she could easily learn everything she needed to about getting the remaining four relics.

Her attention was quickly caught by a small tinge of pain in one of her fingers, she frowned deeply at it. She was an immortal, she didn't normally feel pain and yet as of late she'd felt several tiny pricks of it, similar to what one would feel when having a hair plucked. "Tyrion." She spoke in a normal tone.

"Yes my goddess?" The man appeared in her doorway to her chambers, he was on his knees.

"Has anything odd or note worthy happened as of late?" She asked the faunus.

"Not that I'm aware of my lady, would you like me to look into it?" Asked sounding excited at the prospect of serving the subject of his worship.

She hummed to herself for a moment. "Yes, anything greatly out of the ordi-ah!" She yelped lightly as a sharp pain struck the side of her head for only a moment.

"My lady!" Tyrion shot to his feet in an instant.

"GO! I gave you your task now complete it." She growled dismissing him with a worried look on his face. When she was alone once more she thought over the pain she'd just felt, like something had just been stolen from her, this time something large.

**Vacuo**

"MAGNIFICENT!" The Monarch shouted looking up at the massive grimm worm that was now looking down on him, most of it's body was still buried beneath the desert sands. "I haven't seen a beast this large since the ancient dragon. Lower yourself before me." He commanded and his crown flashed a dull light, the giant creature slowly lowered itself in front of him.

It had no visible eyes and the its head opened up into several large mandibles, saliva dripped to the ground below causing the sand to sizzle an noxious gas to rise from it. "It certainly is the largest Sand Wurm I've ever seen, what will you do with it my lord?" The Sargent asked from nearby.

"Hm, for now nothing." He gestured to the ground below causing the monster to begin re-submerging itself in the sand below. "It will dig down and sleep far below until I have use for it, consider it a large guard dog for the entire area around the town. Speaking of which, how are the renovations going?" He asked the man who had become his second in command, his modern military experience made him a very valuable asset.

"Very well my lord, the new walls should be completed within the month. Now that revenue made from the towns people is going straight into the treasury our funds are only growing, we will soon be capable of purchasing the defensive upgrades we'll need once we make ourselves known to the world. The town will soon be the fortress you desire it to be." He explained to the young looking boy.

"Excellent, with these beasts, what did you call them again?" He looked to the soldier.

"Grimm my lord." He responded quickly.

"Ah yes, with these grimm to supplement my forces and the dedication of the soldiers I will take under my command, taking four pathetically small kingdoms will be a simple matter." He smiled widely as the entered through the front gates of the town, all of the present soldiers and militia members knelt as he walked by. Every citizen regardless of age or race did the same as he passed through the town. The pair came to a halt in front of the large manor near the center of the town where a pair of guards stood. "Have a report brought to me by this evening." He told the man who bowed.

"At once my lord."

"Oh and Sargent, two more things. I'm stripping you of the rank Sargent, your deserve a title fitting my right hand. I hereby name you, Minister of War." He told the soldier who only bowed deeper.

"You honor me beyond words my lord." He spoke with clear pride.

"As for the second thing, I'd like to rename this town." He told the newly appointed Minister.

"What would you like the new name to be my lord?" He asked.

He only thought for a few moments. "New Drangleic."

The Minister bowed and took off to complete the tasks given to him and the Monarch entered into his manor, what neither man noticed was the young boy hiding beneath the porch of one of the houses in town listening in on their conversation. He quickly scurried out from under the porch and began making his way through the streets until his came upon an alley near the edge of town, within the alley was a large cardboard box. In the corner of the box was a bag he looked over to make sure everything he'd need was present, he was leaving tonight. He had to let someone know what was happening to his town.

**Patch**

Knight side stepped a wide swing from Cardin's mace, his hand shot out and grabbed the back of the boys shirt. Yanking him around he used the teen as a shield against a barrage of rounds from one of his teammates. Then without any real effort he lifted the fully armored six foot teen and threw him into the blue haired boy approaching from behind.

Jumping backwards into a roll he avoided an attack from above by Russel, before the teen could react he rammed his shoulder into the boys back sending him face first to the ground. He attempted to pick himself only for Knight's boot to push him back to the ground. Raising his hand he pointed to the only boy still on his feet, Cardin and Sky were both on the ground still trying to catch their breaths. Dove knelt with his weapon aimed from a branch in a nearby tree, after a few more seconds he lowered his weapon and dropped down from the branch to the ground.

"How is it possible that a guy that big can move that fast?" Sky asked from the ground.

"We've been sparring for three hours, I'm more curious at how he's not even sweating." Cardin responded as he sat up.

Knight took his foot off of Russel's back allowing him to turn over and begin panting. Knight walked over to the two and point to Cardin. "Bad defense." He said simply before looking to Sky. "Worse defense." Then he looked to Russel. "To slow." Finally his gaze fell on Dove, he was silent for several seconds. "Good aim."

"HA!" Dove threw his arms up in victory. "You guys suck and I've got a nice aim! I'm so choosing our study music for our first week back." Dove laughed loudly only to be cut off by a boot flying through the air and hitting the side of his head.

"You need to watch your back, there now you suck to." Russel growled now missing one of his boots.

Cardin climbed to his feet and walked over to Knight. "Classes start back the day after tomorrow so you won't have to deal with us everyday like you have lately, thanks for putting up with our shit."

Knight stared at him silently for several seconds before finally raising his fist in a gesture he learned from the teens a few weeks back. With a grin Cardin pounded the fist with his own. With that done Knight turned and began walking away.

**Beacon**

Cardin flipped through the book in his hand, it had taken a while and some help from Oobleck but after getting an alphabet from Knight he and the professor, mostly the professor, had managed to decipher the book. It was a tale of four legendary knights though if what that woman had said was true, they were real people, at least they were. He was far from fluent with the long dead language, it took him nearly half an hour to get through a paragraph but he could tell he was getting better. He found himself needing the translation note Oobleck had written to help him less and less. It was actually pretty cool when he thought about it, he was probably one of only a very small group of people who could now identify the language and one of the even smaller group that could read it.

As he read he continued to growing more and more enthralled, Ornstien the Dragonslayer, leader of the four knights. Apparently he carried the ring of the lion, the same that Sky now wore. Hawkeye Gough, the blind giant marksmen and holder of the hawks ring, Dove's ring. Ciaran the Lords Blade, the only woman among the four and the deadliest assassin ever known to Anor Londo, wherever that was. She wore the hornet's ring which was now worn by Russel.

Finally was his favorite of the three and not only because he now wore his ring. Artorias the Abyss Walker. The man was a monster on the battlefield, he cut through wave after wave of enemies with his companion Sif the great wolf. His was the ring of the wolf, as he read his pride in wearing the ring only continued to grow. "I wonder if I can find a wolf to follow me around." He muttered to himself as he turned a corner and bumped into someone causing him to drop his book. "Watch where you're going assho-" He stopped when he saw who was in front of him, a familiar rabbit faunus.

Velvet quickly bent down and scooped up his book and held it out to him. "Sorry." She sounded a bit panicked, the three people behind her however were glaring daggers at him.

After a moments hesitation he snatched the book out of her hands. "Whatever." Was all he said as he stepped around the group and continued walking, the book now under his arm. He couldn't stand that girl, Velvet Scarlatina, she was a faunus yet even worse to him was the fact that she was so damn nice. His family was well off, mainly because of his fathers business. He was raised a certain way, he was always taught that faunus were lying, cheating thieves. Something that was backed up by the White Fang's attacking of his fathers properties. They were no SDC but that didn't stop them from being a target of the fangs ire.

The faunus he knew growing up didn't give him a great view of them either, at school they were the ones you went to if you wanted to get high. If something went missing from your locker it was almost always a faunus who took it. Then he comes to Beacon and one of the first people he meets is a girl with large brown ears who who offers to show him around campus. Even after he began taunting her she stayed polite and kind. After weeks of trying, even having his team who he knew for a fact didn't completely agree with his view on faunus join in, she still never stopped being nice.

He'd brought her to tears several times and each he fully expected her team, who were at the top of their class in the second year, to come after him and his boys. He intended to take that beating himself when it came, he dragged them into it after all, but it never came. They only ever gave him evil glares an she kept smiling, it was driving him insane.

Even worse was how he was beginning to feel guilty, not just for tormenting a girl who he was slowly being convinced was a damned paragon of virtue, but also for dragging his teams names through the mud. He didn't give two shits if people hated him, but they were getting shit for what he was responsible for.

Walking up a flight of stares he made his way to his teams dorm roof, pushing the door open he was met with the familiar smell of sweat layered with air freshener. Laying on their bunks were Dove and Sky, Russel was playing a game on the TV. "They knock out early for tomorrow?" Cardin asked dropping down onto his bed while setting down his book.

"Yup, I'm not far behind them either, just need to finish the dungeon." He responded without looking away from the screen.

Cardin rolled over onto his side and closed his eyes, he'd take a shower in the morning. Sleep took him quickly enough but it didn't keep him, after a few hours his eyes opened to a nearly pitch black room. It was cold as usual, he preferred to sleep in a cold room, luckily so did his team. A loud fan was running in the corner circulating the air in the room, it also filled it with a white noise. One of the down sides to being a hunter they don't tell you about is the hearing damage from being around explosions and gunfire as often as they are. Tinnitus was a bitch.

He remained on his back trying to fall back to sleep for nearly an hour before he sighed and picked himself up out of the bed and grabbed his book before quietly opening the door and slipping out. If he couldn't sleep then he'd try and do some more reading.

Walking down the hallway he soon reach the stairs and made his way up towards the roof, opening the door he was quickly met by the sound of a quiet conversation. Out of curiosity he pushed the door open and slipped out. Sitting on the edge of the roof sat the source of his frustration. Velvet sat wearing a brown t-shirt and yellow short shorts, pressed against one of her normal human ears was her scroll.

"It's suppose to be a simple extermination run but it'll be our first without a teacher with us, Coco is working herself ragged preparing." She said into the device clearly not having noticed him yet. "Well we were but since there's a chance we could be returning late a first year team has been placed in charge of it." She paused again listening to the the person on the other end. "I know but it's only around midnight..." She stopped. "Alright, I'll go to bed. Love you Pappy." After a few more seconds she hung up and took a breath, after a few more seconds she began shaking and he could hear whimpering followed by sniffling.

Cardin was a jerk, he bullied her often and he knew she was afraid of him, pulling on her ear, making her drop her books even the classic of taking her lunch. He'd done it all, so yeah he knew he was a huge dick, but cornering a crying girl on a roof top in the middle of the night was beyond even his level of scummy. Turning around he grabbed the door handle, the sound of the rusty outside door handle turning squeaked through the air causing him to curse under his breath.

Looking back he found Velvet now staring directly at him with horror and tear filled eyes, turning back to the door he sighed before letting go. Turning completely to face the terrified girl he couldn't help but think back to when he was stuck in the cave. He held himself together well but he'd been scared he was going to die alone in the dark. When he'd found the room Knight was in, even when he thought he was just a corpse, he put up a tough act for the other 'person' in the room with him. Had he come upon an empty room with absolutely nothing after walking the long hallway he'd likely have lost it. In his time of need however he found something to be strong for even if it was just his image before a corpse. That corpse had ended up saving his life and taking him to the exit.

As much as he couldn't stand the girl he could tell she needed someone and if he could find comfort of some kind in a corpse slumped against a wall, maybe she could find some in her bully. Rubbing his eyes he walked over to the girl but stopped a few feet away and sat down. "You okay Rabbit?" He made himself ask.

**Vacuo**

Silver trudged forward weakly, it had been days since he'd escaped the town and he was completely out of both food and water. He knew the walk to Vacuo city would be long and he only really knew the general direction, still he thought he could pull it off. He took another step but tripped and fell to the hot sand bellow, his already sun scorched skin blistered and cracked.

Nearby he heard a rumbling but ignored it, he'd long since started seeing and hearing things. After another minute however he felt something grab him.

"Boss it's a kid!" Someone shouted.

"Someone get him some water!" Another yelled.

Then he felt the greatest euphoria of his life as liquid coated his mouth and throat, that was when he realized he wasn't hallucinating. He began draining the water from the canteen. "What the hell are you doing out here kid?" The one who gave him the water asked, at that moment they might as well have been god.

"The town... he took it."

**I think that's a good place to stop for now. To those wondering why I didn't show a conversation between Ashe and Knight, just wait I will. Some of the things they talked about after their fight will come up but if you were all to read it now it would likely spoil certain things. Leave me a review and tell me what you all think. Until next time.**


	4. Chapter 4

** This is probably gonna take another two weeks to finish. Let's do this.**

Cardin held eye contact with the girl for several seconds without saying anything further, after about thirty he sighed. "Look, I just came up here to do some reading. So if you don't want to talk about it I'll just go find somewhere else." He said holding up his book before turning to leave.

"I'm scared." He stopped at that, turning he looked at the girl who'd now pull her knees to her chest. "We're going on our first solo mission and I don't know if I'm ready. What if I mess up and get someone on my team hurt, or if we fail." He watched the girl that he knew for a fact could probably kick his ass in a fight break down once again.

Cardin walked over to the edge of the roof where she sat but kept several feet between them. "That's a pretty normal thing to be scared over, we're hunters. In our profession people could die if we fuck up, that's what we signed up for. Being scared about it is only natural, but giving in to that fear is will only insure that fear comes true." He told the girl something he'd only learned very recently. "A situation is never really as hopeless as it seems, as long as you are still alive you can make things work. I learned that from someone I met not long ago."

Velvet continued to cry for another minute before she calmed down enough to speak. "Who was it?" She choked out.

"A guy called Knight, did you know I went missing a while back?" He asked.

She nodded as she wiped her eyes a bit. "Our team helped search."

That surprised Cardin a bit, he figured her team would throw a party at his possible death. "Well I fell into a fissure in the ground and got knocked out, when I woke up I was in an underground tunnel. I was scared shitless as I walked for an hour straight in the dark with only my scroll to light the way." Raising up his hand as he told the story Cardin began looking over the ring on his finger. "My scroll was just about to die when reached the end of the tunnel, a big ass wooden door. I pushed the doors open and guess was I found."

"The way out?" She guessed.

"A dead end, I had walked in the wrong direction." He said shaking his head. "I was hungry, thirsty, couldn't see a thing and I had a head injury. I just collapsed against a wall and passed out. When I woke up I found myself on some random guys shoulder as he carried be through the tunnel, it was Knight. By some miracle he decided to check out what was in the tunnel he found while hunting grimm out in the forest. He found me and probably saved my life." It was only half a lie, Knight of course wasn't a hunter and he'd already been there, but she didn't need to know the details. "Then a while later I went back to the tunnel entrance where he'd set up camp, while we were talking a ton of grimm surrounded us. Now I know this his gonna sound like a load of crap, but an honest to gods Amarok was at the head of the pack in the middle of the day."

Velvet tilted her head. "I thought Amarok's were nocturnal?"

"So did I." Cardin said indignantly. "But there it was standing with a ton of other grimm, and there I was pretty sure I was about to die. I mean a huntsmen in training and a single huntsmen against an Amarok lead horde? We were good as dead." Cardin shook his head.

"What happened?" Velvet asked barely even crying anymore.

"Knight happened." He laughed. "For the rest of my life I'll never forget that crazy bastard walking up to the Amarok with nothing but his shield and fists. He and the Amarok started tearing into each other one on one. Nothing you've ever seen in a movie or read in a book will ever be as awesome as watching a guy in full heavy armor uppercut an A-class grimm. After he managed to kill it the rest of the grimm decided to attack us, that was when my team showed up. Together with Knight we managed to take out the horde, my team killed less than half of what Knight did by himself." Cardin looked to the girl who was listening with wrapped attention. "I was in two separate hopeless situations and both times I survived, sure the first one was pure chance but the second was because I had people I could rely on. And if the death glares your team gives me is anything to go by I'm pretty sure you can rely on them."

The pair were silent for several minutes. "You've changed." Velvet spoke earning a raised eyebrow from Cardin. "A few weeks ago you never would've talked to me like this, you've also stopped bullying people almost entirely." She said softly.

Cardin didn't really respond before standing up. "Go get some sleep rabbit." He said walking towards the door.

"Cardin." She called his name making him pause. "Thanks."

He didn't respond as he opened and walked through the door.

**Elsewhere**

The Monarch read over the scroll in his hand with clear interest, he was currently sat in the office that once belonged to the former mayor of this town. It was smaller than he'd prefer but once he began conquering more land he'd have a proper palace built for himself. That wasn't important at the moment however, he had recently had one of the school teachers of this town sit down and begin teaching him the written language. It was an odd script to him but he managed to learn it in only two days, he was now able to read advanced text books with relative ease.

The one in his hands was on the topic of a phenomenon called 'Aura', he was enthralled. He'd always been fascinated by the soul, but to see how thoroughly it changed in the time he slept was astounding. From the research he'd done so far it appeared the use of Aura was only a thousand or so years old, compared to his sorceries it was still a new and budding anomaly for study, he hadn't been so excited to learn more in a very long time.

There was only so much he could learn through books however, he needed to be able to perform tests. With that thought he closed the book and stood from the desk, walking to his door he pushed it open. The soldier that was standing guard outside the door snapped to attention instantly. "Where is the War Minister?" He asked the man.

"I'm not entirely certain my lord, would you like me to put out a summons for him?" The soldier asked with absolute respect in his voice.

"No, I feel the need to stretch my legs. I think I'll go for a walk and find him." The Monarch waved him off as he walked down the hallway, the soldier following behind.

"Very good my lord, would you like me to gather an escort?" He asked.

"No, I'll be walking by myself. When I return I want several books on world history, technology, weapons, politics and biology on my desk." He instructed.

"At once my lord." The soldier said before running off to perform his task as if it was given to him by god, though with the power of the crown it might as well have been in his mind.

The Monarch walked out of the front door of his mansion and into the street, everyone around him began bowing the moment they laid eyes on him. That might get a bit annoying for his walk. Turning around he stepped back into his mansion and cast the chameleon spell on himself, instead of becoming an object however he shifted into the form of one of his soldiers.

Stepping out once more nobody seemed to give him a second glance, this earned a smile from him. He began walking down the street towards the walls, the walk didn't take long and when he arrived he watched with satisfaction as a large cannon of some sort was being lifted up by a crane up onto the wall. The one supervising all of this just so happen to be the one he was looking for.

Walking over to the man who was watching the cannon be lowered. "Minister, I have a new job for you once you finish here. How long do you believe it will be?" The minister scowled at him.

"You will salute when you approach me, next time you fail to I will have you performing a twenty four hour patrol, am I clear?!" He shouted leaving the Monarch speechless for a moment before he remembered he looked like just another soldier. He chuckled. "You think I'm funny boy?!" The Monarch raised his hand and dispelled the illusion, the Minister's face instantly went stark white before he fell to his knees. "My lord, I had no idea it was you. Had I known you were coming I would've prepared accordingly. I beg you to forgive my insolence." The man pleaded.

The Monarch laughed again. "Rise Minister, I take no insult from your words. If anything I'm happy to see you keeping your men in line and on a short leash, keep it up. A disciplined army is an effective one."

"Thank you sire, I am not worthy of your praise." The man said standing and snapping into a formal stance. "I believe you mentioned another task for me my lord."

"Yes, it's not an urgent matter, but an important one. I need you to look into hiring a huntsmen or huntress, one who is loyal to money alone and will not allow morals to cloud their judgement." He told his right hand. "On second thought, widen the net to any master aura user. I could care less their title, status or profession"

"Of course sir, I will begin researching the perfect candidate the moment the new defensive cannons are installed." The minister nodded.

"Excellent, I'll be looking forward to seeing your selections." The Monarch then turned to leave.

"Your lordship." He stopped when he heard the minister call to him. "Forgive me sire, but I have a request on behalf of myself and many of the men."

The Monarch raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

"Many of the men, myself included, have family across Vacuo. We'd like permission to bring them here to New Drangleic. It would mean a great deal to us sire." The man explained in a deep bow.

"Minister, I'm disappointed." He shook his head earning a look of worry to cross the mans face. "Do you believe I'd turn down such a request? A chance to not only increase our population but also raise the morale of our men. You should've brought this to me sooner, do it." He spoke with clear amusement in his voice. "In fact, have some one draw up plans for more living spaces, both in and outside the walls."

"Thank you my lord, you are to generous. It will be done at once." With that the Monarch walked away smiling even wider than before.

**Beacon**

Silver looked around nervously at the surrounding buildings and all the students, walking beside him were several huntresses. These were the women who'd found him, each was strikingly beautiful in their own right, something he'd made the mistake of stating out loud when they'd found him delirious from heat and dehydration. After he'd explained everything that had happened in his town they immediately decided to bring him here to speak with someone.

He was an eleven year old kid from the middle of nowhere Vacuo, the tallest building he'd ever seen was the old bell tower they use to use to warn about grimm. The tower before him dwarfed that by a very long shot. "At the top of this tower is the person you need to talk to Sil, his name is Professor Ozpin. If anyone will know what to do." One of the girls ruffled his hair, she had purple hair. "He's a nice man so you don't need to be scared of him."

Silver pushed the hand off of him. "I'm not scared, stop treating me like a little kid." He snarled but only earned a giggle from the girl in response. The group soon entered the elevator in the lobby of the tower and began rising.

Once the doors opened the five stepped into the office of a man sitting at a desk reading over some paper work. "Team ROOT, it's good to see you ladies all in good health. I was surprised when I got word that you cut your two week patrol mission short after only four days." The older man spoke looking up. "Can I assume this young man with you might have something to do with that."

The girl with purple hair stepped forward. "Yes sir, while we were patrolling as instructed we found him collapsed in the desert. We gave him water and first aid, we were planning to take him to the nearest town and allow the authorities to take care of him, however he seemed to have information that we didn't know what to make of. So as leader I made the decision to bring him to you sir."

The older man stood from behind his desk and walked around to the other side at up to the group, he lowered himself to the boys level. "I see, how are you feeling young man? I know first hand how hot the Vacuo desert is, to walk out into it on foot is something only the very desperate would attempt. What happened?"

Silver swallowed hard before taking a breath. "I'm from the town White Rock, my name is Silver." Before he could say more the older man pulled out his scroll and stood before stepping over to his desk and setting it down. A large holographic map formed at the center of the room showing all of Vacuo, he pressed a few more buttons and a small area was circled.

"Is this your town?" He asked.

Silver stared in amazement at the spectacle of lights. "Yeah that's it."

"White Rock, population just over two thousand, main industry revolves around the rich iron and copper mines nearby. Alright I think I've got a grasp on the location. So what lead you to leaving the town and walking over fifty miles before team ROOT here found you?" He continued.

"Well some soldiers showed up in town one day a couple weeks ago, they had the Vacuo flag on their shirts so everyone thought it was normal. But with them they had... a guy." His voice seemed to take on a tone of fear causing Ozpin to raise an eyebrow. "They went straight to the mayors house and a couple hours later everyone in town was gathered in front of town hall. The guy, he wore all black and had a weird helmet thing on his head. He held out his hand and yelled at everyone to bow or kneel or something and then the helmet thing flashed." He continued to explain while the professor listened closely. "I thought he was weird but then almost everyone got on their knees, the only ones who didn't were Old Man Hinderson and Captain Marsh, the leaders of the towns militia. Well I didn't either but I was on a roof nearby, I wanted to see what was going on."

"A few seconds later there were loud bangs from all around and..." Silver began breathing heavily until one of the girls placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled at him. "Both Mr. Hinderson and Captain Marsh were hit all over by bullets, I thought everyone was gonna start screaming but nobody moved. After the man in black began telling everyone what to do and they just did it, nobody fought or argued. Then after a week or so the grimm attacked the town walls, I remember I was eating some fruit I stole. I thought the man in black was gonna get eaten when he walked out the front gates but he he shouted again and the thing on his head flashed again and all the grimm started doing what he told them to!" The boy was to enveloped in his own story to noticed a very brief moment of shock and horror take over Ozpin's face before he managed to pull it back under control.

"After that I just started hiding all day and coming out to get food at night. Everyone in town is acting like slaves, they gave him all their money and get on their knees every time they see him. So I ran away to tell someone." Silver finished.

Ozpin nodded. "Do you have any idea why you and those two men weren't affected by whatever he did to the towns people?"

Silver shook his head. "No."

Ozpin thought for a moment. "What do you know about the two? What did they use to do?"

"Old Man Hinderson used to be a huntsmen a long time ago, I think Captain Marsh was to but got hurt and had to quit." He answered.

Something then clicked in Ozpin's head. "Silver, is your aura unlocked?"

The boy took on an ashamed look. "The lady at the orphanage said I shouldn't ever use it, but Pa wanted to teach me to use it before he died when I was little."

"I get it, so only those without their aura unlocked are affect." The leader of the all girl team said in realization.

Ozpin remained silent for several seconds as he thought over what the boy had just said. The only one to have ever been capable of commanding the grim has been Salem and she's been the bane of him for centuries. If there was a new player in the game that could also command grimm then it could change everything. Walking to his desk he took his scroll and replaced it in his pocket. "I understand, thank you for bringing this to me ladies, you made the correct decision. Please take young Silver here to get some food, I'm certain he's hungry. I'll make arrangements for him soon."

"What about my town?" The boy asked.

"Before I can do anything I'll need to learn more as well as contact the Vacuo government, but rest assured that I will do everything in my power to take care of this." He told the group before they finally reentered the elevator and left him alone, pulling out his scroll he made a call. "Qrow, I need your assistance with something."

**Patch**

Knight crept as silently as he could over the dead leaves of the forest until he knelt down in the shadow of a tree, in his hands was a simple wooden bow he'd had Andre slap together for him. The man had it done in ten minutes flat, the arrows took another five. They definitely weren't mastercraft quality but he wasn't planning on hunting dragons.

Slowly he notched an arrow and slowly drew it back while taking aim at his target, an average sized buck, likely a large juvenile or young adult. Holding his breath he released the arrow and watched it fly, it hit the deer in the side likely only grazing the deer's heart, his aim was a bit off. Taking off in a sprint after the wounded animal he managed to maintain a distance of around a hundred feet, the chase lasted about ten minutes before the animal began to visibly tire. After another five or so minutes the animal collapsed to the ground and Knight approached it.

Standing over the panting animal that was slowly leaking blood Knight withdrew a large knife and knelt down, with a single swift motion he ended the creatures suffering. Cleaning the blade and removing the arrow he hefted the animal onto his shoulder as he began walking towards his home. It must've weight about two hundred pounds, he barely noticed the weight really. It would still feed him and Andre for at least the next week. Even if undead didn't really need to eat it didn't mean they didn't feel hunger, it was just as unpleasant for them as anyone, it just wouldn't kill them.

It took over an hour to reach his shack, he passed it by and walked up to Andre's door before giving a firm knock. It took several seconds for it to open. "Ah, got a nice one I see." Andre nodded before taking him around the back of his house to a large table that Knight dropped the animal onto. "I'm feelin like stew tonight, sound good?"

Knight nodded as the large man pulled out his own knife and set to work on skinning and slaughtering the animal. With his part done Knight turned and walked back to his shack, he stripped down to his loincloth and laid back on his bed. Closing his eyes he took a deep breath of the cool autumn air that fill his home.

That thought caused his eyebrows to raise a bit. "Home." He didn't actually vocalize it but instead mouthed the word. Was that what this place was to him? Did he consider this shack to be his home? What made a home?

He mulled this question over in his mind for several minutes. A home was where some felt most comfortable, most at peace. Somewhere someone could let their guard down without fear. Somewhere they were happy.

He was comfortable here, he was at peace. Here he laid unarmed and vulnerable, but was he happy? He honestly didn't know, it had been so long even before his slumber that he'd stopped allowing himself to truly feel anything. To feel was to invite despair, that was the path to hollowing. So instead he'd given himself a goal and set his mind on that and nothing else, that was how many undead set about preventing hollowing. Give yourself an almost impossible goal that while can be done, likely never would. He however went and actually accomplished his goal. Who'd have thought killing the gods responsible for the birth of the undead curse would be to easy a goal.

Now however he had nothing, no goal, no purpose and yet he felt at ease. So what did he now have to keep him from going hollow? His eyes opened and drifted to the chest that held his gear, and more specifically his sword. At one time he could see himself with a goal other than slaying the gods, that however was now gone forever. All that remained were scraps of a memory he did all he could to forget.

**Hawkwood, Southern Mistral**

The moon was high over the town of Hawkwood, it's pale light filled the streets and cast long shadows. A group of men walked down the center of the street surrounding a horse pulled carriage, each man held a rifle. One of the men grabbed a handle on the side of the carriage and pulled himself up, he gave a light knock on the door before cracking it open. "Ma'am, we will be stopping at the town inn for the night. The airship should be here by morning to take us back to the capital."

Inside the carriage sat a young woman, likely in her mid twenties with long black hair. "Thank you Mr. Orchid." She nodded. This was Melody Camilla, eldest daughter to the current prime minister of Mistral. It had been a long week for the girl, she'd offered to take her fathers place in visiting one of the southern most villages of the region for a charity event. The flight in had been easy only taking a bit over a day, the flight back however had been forced to cancel. A large migration of air born grimm was sighted in the flight path forcing them to take a land based route.

The bodyguard closed the door and got back into position next to the carriage, he scanned the surrounding buildings as he he walked. Something was off, what it was he couldn't say but he could feel it. "Ugh, what is that?" He heard the guard behind him grumble.

Turning to face him he saw the man was holding his nose with a disgusted look, Orchid frowned. It was Vin, the only faunus member of the girls guard detail, he was a dog faunus with an incredible sense of smell. "What are you smelling?" He asked the faunus.

"I don't really know, it's like a pungent cocktail of different things. Grease, sulfur, oil, smoke and gallons of blood. But not normal blood, it smells like it's been poured on the floor of an empty room and left alone for a few decades. I think I gonna be sick." The man held back a gag.

Orchid didn't like the sound of that. "Now that's impressive, don't often find a nose better than my own." Every guard present tensed and the driver halted the horse. Several dozen feet in front of the group a man walked out of an alley between two buildings. The moon hung behind him casting a shadow over his form but they were able to make out a few key details. He was tall, easily over six foot, and in his hand leaning on his shoulder was a large object. In the light Orchid could make out much about it but the first thing that came to mind was a giant pizza cutter. He had something large hanging from his back as well though it was impossible to tell what it could be. He wore a large hat and a long coat, all other features were obscured.

Orchid and the other men all level their rifles at the man. "Identify yourself!" He shouted at the man.

"Mr. Orchid, what going on?" Melody asked cracking open the door.

"Ma'am, stay in th-" He was cut off by a loud crack and something tearing through one side of his head and out the other splattering blood on the girl.

Melody screamed and automatic fire began sounding all around. "Ma'am, you need to get out of here now!" Another bodyguard shouted as the others fired upon whoever had killed her head bodyguard. Jumping out of the carriage she was hurried away from the storm of gun fire. Then she heard the most horrible noise she'd ever heard, it was the shrieking of metal grinding against metal at high speeds. This was quickly followed by a scream of agony as one of the guns quit shooting.

As they ran she could hear the gunfire die down one by one. Pulling her into an alleyway the bodyguard made her squat behind a trashcan as he pulled out his scroll. "Vin you there? O'Henry? Marcus?!" He shouted into the device. "Does anyone copy, what is the situation?" No reply came for several seconds. "Is anyone aliv-" Another loud crack sent him to the ground earning another scream from the girl.

Melody stood and took off running down the alley, her eyesight was lessened by both the darkness of night as well as the tears falling down her face. Then a horrible pain exploded from her leg sending her tumbling to the ground. Looking to her leg she found a knife stuck in her calf. Before she could do anything a shadow was cast over her. "Poor little lass, you must be terrified." A rough accented voice sent a shiver down spine as she looked up at the man now towering over her. "I'm sure you've a hundred questions bouncing around in that head of yours." His voice almost sounded gentle to the in shock girls ears, that didn't change the fact that every syllable terrified her. "Why me? Why am I doing this? What did I ever do to him?" He spoke as he pulled out a large pistol of some kind and readied it. "Well, to be honest you've never done anything to me. This isn't personal." He placed the barreled to the girls forehead. "It's just business." Those were the last things she ever heard.

There was a long moment of silence as the man stared down at the young womans corpse before reaching into his pocket and pulling out his scroll, holding it out he took a photo of her body and sent it to a random number. Several seconds passed again before a response came in the form of a text.

_'Your payment has been sent, our business is complete.'_

Switching over to his bank account he noted fifty million lien had been placed into his account. Stowing the device away he turned to leave. He'd paid the local police a large sum to ignore everything they heard for the next thirty minutes. Before he could begin walking however he was surprised to see a grimm sitting in the middle of the road staring at him. It was a nevermore the size of a large dog, the strangest thing about it however was the fact that an envelope was tied to it's neck. Out of curiosity he approached it, his weapon shouldered and ready. Leaning down he grabbed the envelope and pulled it free. It was addressed to him, he opened it.

_'To Sir Ostwick Pale,_

_I am in need of a man of great skill in both combat and aura. According to rumor and research you meet my requirements. Come to the following coordinates at your earliest convenience if you are interested in an opportunity to not only gain wealth beyond your wildest dreams, but so very much more. _

_Sincerely, This Worlds New Monarch.'_

Ostwick chuckled as he read the note before checking the coordinates at the bottom, a quick search on his scroll showed it to be the location of a small town in Vacuo named White Rock. "How interesting."

**Vale**

Knight was not at all happy as he walked down the sidewalk of the large city, in his hands was a map he was making his best to attempt to read and failing. There were dozens of streets, each was numbered with symbols he hadn't completely learned yet. At the moment he had learned to read at what Cardin had told him was a third grade level, what that meant he didn't really know but he took it as a compliment. He'd finished an odd book that was very different from any he'd seen before.

It consisted of crudely drawn representations of a giant caterpillar, according to the text in the book this caterpillar was ravenous in it's hunger. It devoured a great many things before becoming sick, the only cure for this ailment was to return to eating what it was meant to eat in the form of leaves. Knight took this as a metaphor for denying the unnatural and returning to humanities roots.

He continued trying to decipher the map as he walked which was likely why he didn't see the person in front of him before he walked into them sending their much smaller form to the ground. Lowering the map Knight was slightly surprised to see a young woman with large rabbit ears on her head, she was currently rubbing her lower back with a pained look on her face. "I'm sorry, I wasn't looking where I was... going." She trailed off as she looked up at the huge man standing over her.

Knight examined the teenage girl, she wasn't the first faunus he'd encountered since waking up but this was the closest he'd ever gotten to one. Andre had mentioned them while explaining the modern world. According to him they were basically identical to humans with only minor superficial differences. They were discriminated against though their treatment was down right pleasant when compared to how most undead were treated by the masses in his time. Being refused service at a shop was far better sounding than being hunted by lords for sport or tortured by angry mobs as 'justice' for crimes against the 'natural order'.

Knight was just about to hold out his hand to held the girl up, he was still a knight and she was a lady, such was the duty of a man. He wouldn't consider himself a gentlemen by any stretch of the term but he still understood politeness. Before he could offer to help her however he felt slam into him from behind with enough force to make him stumble a bit. "Back off asshole!" He heard another women shout at him, turning he found another teenage girl helping the rabbit girl up.

"Coco it's okay, it was just an accident!" The rabbit tried to reason with the new girl.

"You don't need to protect this creep Vel, we saw how he was glaring down at you. We're not at Beacon right now and he's not another student so don't worry about trouble." A boy spoke stepping up behind the other girl alongside another much taller boy, this boy was nearly as tall as Knight himself with less then an inch difference. On the one who spokes arms were odd blades.

Beacon if he remembered correctly was the name of the school Cardin and his team attended, these must be his classmates. "I'm not lying, I ran into him while he was looking at a map and got knocked down." She responded as the tallest of them stepped up to Knight until they were chest to chest making eye contact.

The boys narrow eyes held Knights own gaze, his eyes being the only part of his face that could be seen under the cloth he had wrapped around his head. Knight had no desire for conflict especially not with children but it went against his pride to back down. "You should leave." The boy said.

Knight opened his left hand that was hanging by his side, a spark lit up and a small ball of flame engulfed the limb. "Child." Knight growled.

Whether it was the roughness of the voice, the heat of the flames he held or the intensity of the undeads gaze he didn't know but the boy flinched back a fraction of an inch. That tiny act of submission was enough for Knight as he stepped around the boy and continued walking leaving the four teens watching his back as he reopened his map, the flames had completely extinguished by then. What nobody but the rabbit girl noticed however was the piece of paper that had fallen out of the undeads coat pocket, likely when she bumped into him. Grabbing it off the ground she scanned it quickly. "Three new whet stones, twenty gallons of cooling oil, five pounds of red dust. A shopping list?" She asked herself before standing up. "Wait! Sir you dropped this!" She called out ignoring her friends telling her to just leave it. Jogging up behind the man she stopped. "Sir, you dropped your list." She said holding out the paper as he turned.

Reaching out he took it back and shoved it into his pocket. "Thanks."

"I'm sorry for my friends, they're rather protective of me and it can be a bit troublesome at times." She said clearly a bit nervous. "My names Velvet, what's yours?"

Knight paused, he didn't really know his name, he'd forgotten it so long ago. Cardin and his team had taken to calling him Knight, something Andre had also begun doing. "Knight." He decided to simply accept the name seeing it as good as any other. Hearing the name seemed to surprise the girl somewhat.

Coco nudged Yatsuhashi with her elbow. "Hey, what was that? You don't flinch that easy." She asked never taking her eyes off the faunus girl who was now talking to the giant man.

Yatsuhashi shook his head. "I don't know, his eyes were... old. Like I was staring down a veteran huntsmen whose seen it all." He explained.

Before Coco could respond she noticed Velvet waving them over, still on guard she approached alongside the two boys. "Hey guys, I told Knight that I'd show him the way to the hardware store."

Coco sighed, this was exactly the kind of thing that annoyed her about her overly nice teammate. "Really, we're helping the creep who was just threatening Yatsu with a fireball?"

"I told you that he didn't knock me down and you guys flew off the handle. He was just defending himself, now come on, it's the least we can do to make up for threatening an innocent man." The bunny girl told her leader before turning and leading the giant man away.

**Patch**

Cardin stepped up to the door of Knight's shack, his team was mostly busy today after classes had let out so he figured he'd catch a quick flight to the island and do some training. He gave a firm knock and waited for nearly a minute. "Knight, you there?" He called before pushing open the wooden door. It wasn't locked, according to Andre Knight didn't see the point in having a lock. Apparently if there was something or someone that worried Knight enough to keep them out then it was safe to say they were more than powerful enough to make an simple locked door irrelevant to the situation.

"The lads in Vale." Cardin heard Andre call from nearby. "Sent him to get some supplies for ma forge, didn't think he'd do it. Then again that lad was never good at say no to people."

"Any clue when he'll be back?" Cardin asked walking over to the old man.

"Not'a one." He said taking a swig from a large bottle in his hand. "Yur here for some more sparring I'd reckon."

Cardin nodded. "Yeah, ever since we started I've noticed myself getting stronger. My whole team has."

Andre nodded. "Aye, I've seen as much, but you've still a long long way to go boy." The old smith told him, he then took another swig before a thought hit him. "I haven't been in a good brawl in a few decades." He told the boy.

Cardin couldn't stop the small snort from rising up at that. "I don't think that's a good idea." He said raising his hand up.

The extremely large blacksmiths eyes narrow as his face twisted into a scowl. "And why might that be boy?" His tone made it clear to anyone with any sense that they needed to watch there words carefully.

Cardin laughed a little. "Well I mean, you're a blacksmith not a huntsmen and well... yur old." That hand obviously been the wrong thing to say as the old smith grabbed his shirt and pulled it off revealing a heavily muscled body covered in countless burn scars, no doubt for an impossibly long carrier as a smith.

"This old man can still kick yur arse with his bare hands boy." He said lifting his hands and loudly cracking his fingers. "Come on, we're doing this on the shore."

Deep inside Cardin couldn't help but feel he'd just made a horrible lapse in judgement.

**Vale**

Velvet looked over a set of polearms on the wall considering whether or not she should add them to her arsenal. It would be helpful to have more weapons with a longer reach to work with but she really needed to see how they were suppose to be used first. Before her thoughts could go any further she lept several feet into the air as she felt someone pinch her rear.

Spinning around she glared daggers at he giggling leader. "Coco, you know I hate that!" She whisper shouted with a very red face.

Coco smiled widely. "I know, that's why it's so funny." She then pointed to the check out area of the shop where Knight was placing a stack of lien on the counter. "Just thought I let you know we're about to leave."

Velvet pouted causing her ears to droop a bit. "You could've just said so."

Coco simply shook her head still smiling. "So tell me something, what's up with you and that guy? You know him?" She asked her best friend.

Velvet took on a confused look. "No, I only met him today, why?"

"Well, ever since we ran into him you've been going out of your way to help him, you spoke to him nonstop the whole walk over here even though he never responded. You've been acting like a love struck school girl and I know for a fact that you aren't the 'love at first sight' kinda girl. I also know that tall dark and silent isn't the type of guy you're into. So spill." She said crossing her arms. Velvet gained a nervous look at this. "Vel, you can tell me, I'm your leader and friend." Coco told her placing a hand on her arm.

Velvet glanced over to the counter where Knight and her other two teammates watched the clerk struggle to put each individual item into a large wooden crate he'd brought out from the back of the shop. "Well, I guess the best way to put it is... I'm thankful towards him." She said looking back to her friend.

"Thankful for what?" She asked raising an eyebrow in both confusion and surprise.

"Well." Velvet took a deep breath. "A few nights ago I was up on the roof and I started crying. I was scared about our mission tomorrow." She admitted with an almost ashamed look on her face. "And while I was crying I heard someone behind me, I looked and saw it was Cardin." The very mention of his name brought an angry scowl to her leaders face. "I thought he might make fun of me or try something, but he didn't. He sat down and talked to me, he actually made me feel better. He told me the story about what happened when he went missing. Then he started talking about a man he'd met named Knight." She told her leader who was listening with a mixture of surprise and skepticism. "He talked about how this incredibly powerful huntsmen had saved his life on two separate occasions, both of which happened around the same time happened around the same time that Cardin and his team stopped bullying me. From how he spoke... I don't know. I think this Knight person changed him."

"And you think this guy is the same person based solely off of his name?" Coco asked.

"Well normally no, but from how he spoke it sounded like he was a very strong huntsmen. It would take someone like that to make Yatsu flinch." She explained. "So even if this is the wrong person, I still want to show my appreciation to the person who changed someone like Cardin."

"Coco, Vel, we're done here." Fox called out to the pair.

The two girls walked over to the three. "Just let me grab a trolley to take this to your truck sir." The clerk said only for Knight to raise a hand stopping him, he then walked over to the crate as if to pick it up. "Sir those are very heavy materials, the crate altogether must weight nearly half a ton."

Ignoring him Knight grabbed the edge of the crate and lifted it seemingly without effort. "I think he can handle it." Coco chuckled.

All together the group stepped out onto the street, Knight holding the crate on his shoulder with one arm. "Will you be able to find your way back to the docks?" Velvet asked the large man.

He gave a nod. "Thanks." He said in his deep gravel like voice.

He began turning to leave when Coco gave her friend a shove. "Ask him." She whispered.

Velvet felt a bit nervous but pushed it to the back of her head. "Um, Mr. Knight." The man stopped and looked to her. Her nervousness came back with a vengeance, it also didn't help that Coco had pulled her other two teammates back into the shop. "Um uh, I was hoping to uh... ask you a question." She cleared her throat. "Do you know a boy named Cardin Winchester? I only ask because I was speaking to him the other night before going to bed and he mentioned meeting someone named Knight who was super strong and I think they might be responsible for changing him into a better person and now I'm rambling." She gave a nervous smile before taking a breath. "So I guess I want to know if you're the one who saved Cardin's life a changed him."

The tall man was silent for several seconds as he stared silently at her, he then lowered the crate to the ground. "A friend." He said nodding his head, the response caused a wide smile to grow across her face.

"I see, well then I'd like to thank you." She gave a light bow but was waved off.

Then he reached into his coat and withdrew a small box which he opened and reached down into, after a few seconds he pulled his hand out and knelt in front of her. Holding out his hand in a gesture towards hers, when she finally gave her hand to him he took it in his which completely engulfed it and placed an object in it. "A gift." A told her before standing once more and grabbing his crate, then without anything further he turned and walked away leaving a very confused Velvet.

It wasn't until after he'd turned a corner that she actually looked down at the item in her hand, her eyes widened a noticeable amount. It was a round amulet with a thin chain, it was round and appeared to be made of solid gold. Etched and painted on the front of it looked like a sun with a small face at the center. The oddest thing about it however was that it felt warm to the touch, in an almost comforting sort of way.

**Later**

Knight continued his walk down the dirt path with the crate on his shoulder, it had certainly been an odd day. The last thing he'd been expecting was to run into Wolf's betrothed on the street, he never would've guess until she mention speaking with him before bed. He'd liked to have known ahead of time to prepare a proper gift for the girl, instead the first thing that came to mind was to simply give her his old Sunlight Medallion. Seeing as he was almost definitely the last warrior of sunlight in existence he doubted he'd need it any longer.

He wasn't sure what the courting traditions of this land were or many of it's traditions in general, but in his home land it was proper to present the female betrothed or spouse of a friend or family member with a gift upon first meeting them. He surely didn't wish to offend the lass or the young wolf if they shared such a custom, thus them medallion. As he'd once heard someone say 'better safe then sorry'.

As he approached the cove where he and the old smith lived he could hear cries of effort as well as loud familiar laughs, once he was in view he watched as the very boy the lass had mentioned charging at Andre with his weapon held high. He brought the mace down towards the old man who swatted it to the side sending it off course and slamming into the ground. Before he could recover Cardin was caught with a powerful hook to the jaw before taking a shin to the side and finally an elbow to the chest sending him to the ground.

"Have ya had enough yet boy, this old man is gettin a bit tired of pulverizin yur body into the sand." He shouted as the clearly battered and exhausted teen tried to force himself to his knees. Feeling someone watching Andre looked over to Knight who was still holding the crate on his shoulder. "Took yur sweet time with it eh lad?" He laughed as he walked over. "The boy thought he could handle an old smith, so I had to show him a thing'er two." He then grabbed the crate with a bit more effort than knight and began carrying it to his cabin. "I'll leave'em to you."

Knight walked over to the teen who was now laying on his back breathing heavily, he squatted down next to him. "I regret everything." Cardin groaned. The chosen undead felt his face pulled into a grin before standing back up and holding his hand out to the boy. Cardin took the offered hand and pulled himself up. "That old man has to be made of stone, I punched him squared in the chest and my hand is still aching."

Knight turned and gestured for the teen to follow, he soon lead the boy to a large shed next to Andre's house and pulled open the door. Raising his hand a flame sparked to life lighting up the shed revealing countless weapons of all kinds. Cardin looked around at the huge selection of deadly instruments as Knight walked over to a chest under a table and opened began looking through it. "What are you looking for?" Cardin asked looking at the chosen undead.

After several more seconds he seemed to find what he was looking for and tossed it to the teen. Cardin looked it over with a raised eyebrow. "What is this?" He asked looking it over, it looked like a round shield, the only problem was it's size. It was small, very small. Only about a foot in diameter, it would do anything to protect him to protect him from a grimm.

"A buckler, rarely seen these days. Next to useless against grimm or firearms but still the best thing you could ask for when fighting another person. Faster at blocking a sword or a full sized shield, excellent for deflecting and throwing someone out of their stance." Andre spoke stepping into the shed holding another bottle of booze. "The lads right to think you'd make good use of it. The way ya fight might be effective against grimm boy, good old fashion brute force. Other hunters however will be able to easily read yur movements and counter. Yur gonna need to modify how you fight if you want to be a real threat in a fight." Cardin stared over the buckler for a minute until Andre grabbed it. "I'll give this a look over an make sure it's in fightin condition. Go home boy, it'll be ready for you by tomorrow."

**Days Later**

Ostwick stared up at the large wall before him, giant wooden doors reinforced with large metal bar. He could see anti air cannons dotting the walls, this certainly wasn't the average village. It defenses more appropriate to a military fort. Then there was the odd fact that he hadn't encountered a single grimm within twenty miles of the town. "Halt, state your business!" A soldier by the gate shouted as he approached.

As he got closer he instantly took notice of the mans eyes, they held a dull glow and he gave off an odd feeling that he hadn't felt in a very long time. It was something akin to arcane energy, if his interest wasn't peaked before it certainly was now. "I've been summoned to this town." He responded pulling out the letter he'd received from the grimm.

The guard took the letter and looked it over. "This is our lords mark at the bottom. OPEN THE GATES!" He yelled up over the walls before handing the letter back. "I apologize for the inconvenience sir, if our lord summoned you personally then a second of your time wasted is unacceptable." He then gave a salute as the giant doors behinds him began opening.

Ostwick paid the man no mind as he stepped past and through the gates where another man, this one not a soldier if their build was anything to go by, stood waiting for him. "Master Ostwick I presume?" He asked earning a nod from the hunter. "Splendid! Our lord has been waiting patiently for your arrival, right this way sir." He said as he began leading the man through the streets.

As they walked Ostwick noticed all the townsfolk of this town were hard at work, each had a task and were performing it dutifully. Men, women, children, young and old. All worked with a content expression on their face, and each shared the same dull glow in their eyes. He also noticed every guard and soldier they passed by was watching him very closely, their fingers twitching towards the triggers on their weapons.

"Here we are sir." The men leading him stopped outside a large steel door. "Just through these doors and down the stairs and you'll find our lords office."

Ostwick looked the heavy door over as the man who'd lead him pulled it open to reveal a dark stone staircase that lead downwards, the steps looks freshly carved and the smell of fresh concrete permeated from the tunnel. It was clear this tunnel had only just been built. Stepping through the door he took several steps down before the doors were shut behind him, then the sound of the door locking echoed through the tunnel. His instincts had been screaming that this was a trap since he first saw the pair of doors, what kind of 'lord' would live in a dark cellar with doors that locked from the outside? He wasn't sure what this was all about but he was ready for whatever was to come.

He continued walking down the stairs for nearly a full minute before he came to another door, grabbing the shaft of his whirligig saw and pulled it onto his shoulder. Before he could even reach for the door handle a massive fist slammed through it turning it to splinters instantly. Ostwick immediately turned to smoke and reappeared just far enough backwards to avoid the limb but close enough to bring his saw down on it, the rapidly spinning blades tore through flesh and bone with ease removing several fingers in the process. An ear piercing howl of agony filled the tunnel Ostwick stood in as the hand retreated.

Stepping through the completely devastated doorway Ostwick looked up at the giant grim gorilla, the area was small, probably only thirty feet wide with the ceiling begin around forty feet high. The floor was covered in sand and he could see the remains of several corpses littering the room. The grimm roared with pure rage as it slammed it's still intact fist onto the ground sending out a shock wave. Ostwick maintained his balance and stepped forwards before disappearing into a cloud of smoke and reappearing next to the beast, he swiftly brought his saw down onto the beasts extended arm an severe it in a shower of gore and sparks.

The grim attempted to kick at him but again he turned to smoke and appeared between the monsters legs, and once again he swung the screeching saw into the leg of the grimm sending it to the floor.

Ostwick looked almost bored as he hopped up onto the beasts back and revved the saws blades before bringing them down onto the back of the monsters neck causing it to begin flailing though it only lasted a few seconds before the creatures entire body fell limp and it began turning to ash. Then as he was about to jump down from the dissolving monster four metal shutters against the walls shot open and four men holding large rifles, anti armor ones if he were to guess, took aim.

Ostwick took in a deep breath just before the four fired from all directions, at once he let out all the air in his lungs in a roar creating a shockwave all around him that deflected each of the rounds that had been fired. Then before they could reload Ostwick whipped out his repeating pistol and in a blur spun around while firing off exactly four shots, each finding it's target dead center in each mans skull.

Ostwick stood still as he prepared for whatever came next, then clapping began echoing from the very doorway he'd come down. "Incredible, absolutely incredible. You are leagues beyond the others." A young looking man wearing all black spoke gesturing to the corpses all around. "None of them even managed to severely injure that beast before being ripped apart, and yet you slew it and my men while making it look like childs play."

The hunter shouldered his weapon and took on a more relaxed stance. "A test then?" He said more as a statement than a question.

"Indeed, and I excited to say you passed." The blindfolded boy nodded with a wide smile.

Ostwick hummed to himself for a moment. "So what happened now?"

The boy laughed. "Now my new friend, we take this world and force it to it's knees." He then turned back to the doorway and began walking through. "Before that however, a contract is needed."

Ostwick only took a moment to begin following behind the boy, thought that word didn't seem to fit him. Something about this person before him felt old and very powerful. Whoever he was Ostwick knew one thing for sure, sticking around here would definitely prove to be interesting. Together the pair made their way up the stairs and out of the tunnel, everyone dropped to their knees as the boy stepped out into the sunlight.

"Good people of New Drangleic!" He shouted out to the masses that were now gathering. "Allow me to introduce you all to your new Minister of Souls, Sir Ostwick Pale!"

**And there we go, don't worry Ostwick will be the last new person for a while. I figured the bad guys needed a powerful ally of his own, also I have very interesting plans for the Good Hunter. Now before we end this I need to ask you all for help with something. I need help coming up with Semblances for team CRDL. I seriously have a ton of trouble thinking of anything good. Leave me a review and tell me what you all think as well as your suggestions. Until next time.**


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